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SKETCH-MAP  OF  CHINA,  DRAWN  BY  AUTHOR,  WITH  SPECIAL 
REFERENCE  TO  HIS  EXPEDITION  TO  SIAN-FU. 


nrtu 


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MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 

A  POPULAR  ACCOUNT  OP  THE  HOLM-NESTORIAN 
EXPEDITION  TO  SIAN-FU  AND  ITS  RESULTS 


.  1 


/ 


. 


■ 


Photograph  by  Arnold  Gentlie,  New  York,  1923. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


n. 


My  Nestorian  Adventure 

In  China 

A  Popular  Account  of  the  Holm-Nestorian  Expedition 
to  Sian-Fu  and  Its  Results 


s 


BY 


FRITS  HOLM,  G.C.G.,  LL.D.,  D.C.L. 

Honorary  and  Corresponding  Fellow  of  Numerous  Geographic  and 
Archceologic  Societies  and  Royal  Academies 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

THE  REV.  PROF.  ABRAHAM  YOHANNAN,  PH.D. 
of  Columbia  University  in  New  York 


Illustrated  with  a  Map  and  Thirty-three  Photographs 
by  the  Author  and  a  Frontispiece 


Fleming  H.  Revell 

New  York 
London 


Company 

Chicago 

Edinburgh 


MCMXXIII 


Copyright,  1923,  by 

FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York: 
Chicago: 
London: 
Edinburgh: 


158  Fifth  Avenue 
17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
21  Paternoster  Square 
75  Princes  Street 


Copenhagen:  A.  F.  Host,  35  Bredgade 
Shanghai:  Kelly  &  Walsh,  The  Bund 


I 


MOST  REVERENTLY  INSCRIBED 
TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

HIS  MAJESTY  FREDERIK  VIII 
KING  OF  DENMARK 
MCMVI-MCMXII 

DURING  WHOSE  REIGN 
THIS  DANISH  EXPEDITION  WAS  UNDERTAKEN 

AND 

WHOSE  GRACIOUS  INTEREST  IN  THE  AUTHOR 
DURING  HIS  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH 
HAS  EVER  REMAINED  A  SOURCE 

OF 

GRATITUDE  AND  INSPIRATION 


■k 


Contents: 


> 


Introductory  Letter  by  Pro¬ 
fessor  Yohannan  .  .  .11 

Foreword . 17 

I.  On  the  Grand  Canal  in  Chili  .  23 

II.  Through  Shantung  Into  Ho¬ 
nan  . 46 

III.  First  Taste  of  Caravan  Travel  .  76 

IV.  On  the  Road  to  Shensi  .  .  89 

V.  Regions  of  the  Loess  .  .  .110 

VI.  The  Ancient  City  of  Sian-fu  .  129, 
VII.  China^s  Foremost  Monument  .  145 
VIII.  The  Nestorian  Inscription  .  .  158 

IX.  Crossing  the  Chingling  Range  .  185 
X.  A  Fast  Houseboat  Trip  .  .  199 

XI.  The  Venerable  City  of  Kai- 

feng-fu . 211 


XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 


Trying  Return  -  J ourney  to 


SlAN-FU 

•  • 

231 

Second  Stay  at  Sian-fu 

•  • 

248 

Transporting  a  Two-Ton  Monu- 

ment  .... 

•  • 

269 

Return  to  the  Coast  . 

•  • 

290 

Fate  of  the  Replica  . 

•  • 

303 

Biographical  Notes 

•  • 

325 

Index  .... 

•  • 

327 

7 


/ 


List  of  Illustrations : 


Facing 

Page 


The  Author . Title 

My  Houseboat  on  the  Grand  Canal .  28 

Bridge  Over  the  Wei  River .  28 

My  Guard  of  Honour  at  Ching  Hua .  82 

Typical  Courtyard  of  Native  Inn .  82 

Loess  Stratification  with  Caves .  116 

Loess  Panorama  in  Honan .  116 

Fertility  of  the  Loess .  120 

Cave-dwellings  in  the  Loess .  120 

Troglodytic  Home  at  Chilipu .  124 

Towering  East-gate  of  Sian-fu .  130 

Roofs  and  Bell-tower  of  Sian-fu .  130 

China’s  Foremost  Monument .  146 

The  Nestorian  Monument  and  Others.  .  .  .  152 

Surroundings  of  the  Monument .  152 

Yii  Show,  Buddhistic  Priest .  156 

Tang  Pagoda  near  Sian-fu .  200 

Ancient  Mosque  at  Sian-fu .  200 

9 


i 


10 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Facing 

Page 

River  Craft  on  the  Tan .  200 

My  Houseboat  on  the  Han .  200 

Old  Bridge  at  Honan-fu .  236 

One  of  My  Caravan-carts .  236 

The  Colossal  Buddha  of  Lungmen .  240 

Taoist  Temple  at  Hwayinmiao .  244 

Prisoners  and  Soldiers .  244 

A  Playful,  Little  Imp .  258 

The  Empress-Dowager’s  Bedroom .  258 

The  Makeshift  Dragon  Throne .  262 

Mandarins  Visiting  the  Monument .  266 

Removal  of  Chingchiaopei’s  Pedestal .  266 

Replica  Arrives  in  Hankow .  292 

Carrying  the  Replica .  300 

Swinging  Replica  onboard  Steamer .  300 

Cast  of  Nestorian  Replica .  312 


1 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 
IN  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 
DIVISION  OF  ORIENTAL  LANGUAGES 

U 

January  24,  1923. 

Excellency : — 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  give  this  book  of 
yours  that  cordial  send-off  which  your  grit  and 
perseverance  and  energy  warrant.  Sixteen 
years  is  a  long  time  for  anyone  to  devote  to  a 
stone,  even  though  that  stone  be  the  Nestorian 
Monument  of  Sian-fu. 

As  you  know,  I  was  reared  in  the  Nestorian 
Church  in  Western  Asia;  and,  during  my  child¬ 
hood,  I  was  taught  the  history  of  the  early 
Nestorians  or  Chakhean  Christians,  and  I 
learned  about  their  astounding  missionary  activi¬ 
ties  far  and  wide  across  the  continent  of  Asia. 

Such  are  the  antecedents  of  these  historical 
Christians,  and  such  is  the  testimony  of  this 
silent  witness  of  the  faithful  labours  of  the 
Nestorian  branch  of  the  Church  in  early  days. 

Later,  as  an  ordained  priest  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  and  as  a  professor  in  this 
University,  I  have  continued  studying  Nestori- 
anism,  about  which  I  have  written  at  length; 


12 


INTRODUCTION 


and  I  have  in  the  meanwhile  enjoyed  your 
acquaintance  and  advice  for  many  a  year, 
while  I  have  attended  your  lectures  with  deep 
interest. 

It  seems  but  natural,  that  men  like  President 
Theodore  Roosevelt;  as  well  as  the  present  Nes- 
torian  Patriarch,  His  Beatitude  Mar  Shimun; 
His  Excellency  Doctor  Vilhelm  Thomsen;  Pro¬ 
fessor  Friedrich  Hirth;  and  Professor  P.  Y. 
Saeki,  have  united  with  many  other  scholars  and 
orientalists  in  lauding  your  successful  efforts  in 
rendering  the  Nestorian  Monument  known 
throughout  the  world.  Indeed,  one  can  hardly 
improve  upon  what  Archbishop  Ireland  wrote 
you  some  years  ago: 

“It  is  no  surprise  to  me  that  the  Holy 
Father  has  thought  it  his  duty  to  bestow 
upon  you  the  honour  of  Knighthood  as 
Commander  in  the  Order  of  St.  Syl¬ 
vester,  and  that  other  honours  have  come 
to  you  in  profusion  from  Sovereigns 
of  States  and  high-ranking  societies  of 
learning. 

“The  Nestorian  Monument  is  a  won¬ 
derful  relic  of  past  ages.  Through  your 
enlightened  researches  and  wonderful 
industry  you  have  drawn  it  from  ob¬ 
livion,  and  made  it  a  living  mouthpiece 


INTRODUCTION 


13 


of  remote  history  to  present  and  future 
generations. 

“I  congratulate  you  upon  your  great 
achievement.” 

I  thoroughly  agree  with  these  words  of  His 
Grace. 

In  conclusion  I  wish  to  say  how  glad  I  am  that 
you  have  been  willing  patiently  to  await  this  pro¬ 
pitious  moment,  when  you  adjudge  your  archaeo¬ 
logical  mission  consummated,  for  bringing  out 
the  interesting  account  of  your  great  expedition 
and  its  important  results. 

With  best  wishes,  I  remain,  Your  Excellency’s, 

Sincere  friend  and  admirer, 

Abraham  Yoh annan. 

H.  E. 

Dr.  Erits  Holm,  G.C.G.,  G.C.O.M.,  G.C.C.M. 

Fourteen  John  Street,  New  York. 


‘‘The  great,  northwestern  provinces  of 
Shensi  and  Kansu,  far  from  railroads  and 
approached  only  by  the  roughest  of  roads 
or  tedious  water  routes,  and  through  their 
isolation  having  no  commercial  inter¬ 
course  with  countries  outside  China,  are 
to  most  foreigners  terra  incognita  ” 

— From  The  New  York  Times 
Book  Review,  Jan.  14,  1923. 


15 


Foreword 


AT  the  end  of  the  Bund,  where  sluggish 
Soochow  Creek  runs  into  that  ever  dirty 
Whampoa  River  which,  some  fifteen  miles 
further  downstream,  joins  the  mighty  Yang-tse, 
is  Shanghai’s  public  garden. 

Near  the  entrance,  when  you  come  from  the 
Bund,  is — or  at  least  was,  some  twenty  years  ago 
and  more — a  tiny  artificial  hillock  with  a  bit  of  a 
summer-house,  placed  just  above  the  sloping 
stone-embankment,  where  once  a  stranded  coun¬ 
tryman  of  mine  committed  suicide. 

In  the  spring  and  early  summer  of  1901, 
when  I  first  came  to  China,  a  compatriot,  Gil¬ 
bert  Berner,  and  I  used  to  meet  every  morn¬ 
ing  early  in  the  little  summer-house  for  a  chat 
before  our  duties  separated  us  for  the  rest  of 
the  day. 

He  was  the  second  son  of  the  head  in  China  of 
the  Great  N orthern  Telegraphs,  Denmark’s  pre¬ 
mier  undertaking  abroad. 

He  had  his  family  in  Shanghai.  I  was  en¬ 
tirely  alone. 

We  were  both  young  and,  therefore,  eager.  I 
was  nineteen,  Gilbert  a  little  more. 


17 


18 


FOREWORD 


At  that  time  the  imperial  court  had  fled  from 
Peking,  and  the  allied  expeditionary  force  under 
its  German  commander,  Field  Marshal  Count 
von  Waldersee,  occupied  the  capital,  while  re¬ 
turning  troops  were  temporarily  garrisoned  in 
the  coastal  cities. 

They  were  great,  those  Boxer  days,  early  in 
the  century! 

Chinese  governmental  edicts  were  issued  daily 
from  Sian-fu,  the  provincial  capital  of  hidden 
Shensi,  the  imperial  residence  for  the  nonce. 

My  friend  and  I  burned  to  go  to  Sian-fu  in 
order  to  report  to  the  outer  world  the  doings  of 
a  Celestial  empress-dowager  and  emperor  in 
exile,  and  we  looked  about  for  ways  and  means. 

I  secured  the  best  maps  from  Kelly  &  Walsh, 
on  the  Bund,  and  I  began  measuring  distances 
and  things,  which  greatly  excited  me. 

Eventually  I  suggested  that — after  Sian-fu — 
we  might  as  well  finish  the  job  and  ride  straight 
across  Asia  and  Europe  to  Denmark,  where  a 
grateful  populace  might  issue  forth  to  acclaim  us 
on  strength  of  our  extensive  if  somewhat  aimless 
peregrinations. 

Nothing,  however,  resulted,  though  I  still 
treasure  as  souvenirs  the  gold-embossed,  neatly- 
bound  maps  with  route-tracings  and  distances 
marked,  all  in  polychromatic  constellations  of 
vivid  inks. 


FOREWORD 


19 


Prosaic  duties  and  complete  lack  of  capital 
detained  us,  although  I  have  not  forgotten  the 
patience  and  kindness  with  which  Mr.  J.  O.  P. 
Bland,  municipal  secretary  and  Times’s  cor¬ 
respondent,  listened  to  my  schemes. 

They  were  the  same  qualities  that  Mr.  Bland 
again  demonstrated  in  Peking,  some  seven  years 
later,  when  my  expedition  all  but  came  to  grief, 
thanks  to  various  fortuities  and  to  the  financial 
panic  in  the  United  States  of  that  memorable 
year. 

Gilbert  worked  in  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank, 
while  I  was  soon  to  embark  upon  some  of  the 
first  inspection-trips  ever  made  for  the  Ameri¬ 
can  Tobacco  Company  up  the  Yang-Tse  and 
elsewhere. 

Yet,  it  must  have  been  then  and  there,  on  the 
little  hillock  in  the  public  garden  of  Shanghai, 
twenty-two  years  ago,  that  the  seeds  were  sown 
which,  later  on,  brought  me  back  to  the  Far  East 
from  Copenhagen,  and  London,  and  New  York 
in  order  that  I  might,  despite  six  years’  delay, 
proceed  to  Sian-fu,  imperial  capital  of  yore, 
there  to  see  what  could  be  done  with  the  Nesto- 
rian  Monument,  there  to  visit  the  sights  of  what 
must  some  day  prove  the  greatest  archaeological 
field  within  Chinese  territory,  there  to  inspect 
the  empress-dowager’s  crammed  quarters  and 
even,  at  Lintung-hsien,  but  sixteen  miles  from 


20 


FOREWORD 


Sian-fu,  rest  more  than  once  overnight  in  Her 
Majesty’s  long-abandoned,  red-painted,  wooden 
bedstead  —  amid  sedulous  scarabs  and  taily 
scorpions,  and  the  other  living  things,  whose 
crawling  you  experience,  when  you  venture  too 
far  into  the  interior  of  the  Middle  Flowery 
Kingdom. 

The  history  of  the  Nestorian  Monument,  the 
Chingchiaopei  or  Luminous  Teaching  Tablet, 
undeniably  forms  the  most  unique  chapter  of  our 
era,  so  far  as  proselytism  is  concerned. 

For  the  bilingual  inscription  reveals  to  us  the 
wondrous  tale  of  the  first  mission  to  China  that 
ever  made  converts  there  to  the  Church  of  Christ 
arriving,  as  it  did,  in  a.  d.  635,  overland  from 
West  Asia — from  Ta  Tsin,  probably  meaning 
Syria. 

Since  those  early  days  we  Christians  have 
become  increasingly  divided,  so  that  a  great 
American-born  movement  is  now  on  foot  in  order 
to  unite  as  many  creeds  and  sects  as  feasible 
under  one  banner. 

It  is  well  so ! 

And  it  behooves  us,  in  this  connection,  consci¬ 
entiously  to  pay  heed  to  what  Dr.  Lowe  Chuan 
Hwa  wrote  in  The  Nation  on  Feb.  7th,  1923,  re¬ 
ferring  to  the  “West’s  conflicting  creeds”  and  the 
various  denominations  so  confusingly  repre¬ 
sented  in  China: 


FOREWORD 


21 


“To  acquire  a  secure  footing  among  the 
educated  and  intelligent  Chinese,  there¬ 
fore,  it  is  imperative  that  Christianity 
should  be  presented  to  them  in  a  form  that 
can  bear  the  closest  critical  scrutiny  by  the 
unprepossessed  intellect.  A  Christianity 
that  is  decaying  in  the  Occident,  a  Chris¬ 
tianity  that  is  mischievous  and  obsolete,  a 
Christianity  that  is  morally  ineffective, 
philosophically  unsound,  and  historically 
untrue  will  never  find  a  permanent  home 
on  Chinese  soil.” 


New  York. 


F.  H. 


I 

ON  THE  GRAND  CANAL  IN  CHILI 


IN  the  evening  of  the  twelfth  day  of  January, 
1907,  at  Queen’s  Hall  in  London,  H.  R.  H. 
the  Duke  of  the  Abruzzi,  the  distinguished 
Italian  sailor  and  alpinist,  delivered,  in  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  King  Edward  VII,  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
and  the  Fellows  of  the  Royal  Geographical  So¬ 
ciety,  his  illustrated  lecture  on  “The  Sources  of 
the  Nile,”  being  the  account  of  his  explorations 
among  the  equatorial  mountain-ranges  of  the 
Ruwenzori  in  Africa. 

For  a  year  and  a  half  I  had  been  a  constant 
reader  in  the  inexhaustible  library  of  the  British 
Museum  with  a  view  of  endeavouring  to  perfect 
my  knowledge  concerning  certain  things  Asian, 
notably  Chinese. 

During  a  three  years’  stay  in  the  Far  East  I 
had  acquired  and  cultivated  a  keen  interest  in, 
and  a  profound  admiration  for  the  ancient 
Celestial  Empire,  its  history,  its  religions,  its 
relics. 

While  in  China,  I  had  heard  mentioned  more 
than  once  the  shamefully  neglected  Nestorian 
Monument  of  Sian-fu,  from  our  western  view- 


23 


24  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


point  undeniably  China’s  foremost  monument, 
and  it  so  happened  that  on  the  very  day  I  at¬ 
tended  the  duke’s  lecture  in  the  evening,  I  had 
spent  the  afternoon  studying  extracts  from  vari¬ 
ous  sources  concerning  the  venerable  Chinese 
Stela  of  early  Christian  origin. 

I  listened  absent-mindedly  to  the  duke’s 
lecture  and  to  His  Majesty’s  congratulatory 
speech,  hardly  realizing  that  all  the  while  nebu¬ 
lous  ideas  and  plans  were  subconsciously  taking 
shape  in  my  brain. 

Two  days  later  I  found  myself  closeted  with  a 
somewhat  irascible,  elderly  official  in  one  of  the 
oriental  departments  of  the  British  Museum,  dis¬ 
cussing  the  possibilities  connected  with  an  at¬ 
tempt  to  obtain  the  N estorian  Tablet,  or  a 
perfect  Replica  in  stone — not  a  cast — of  that 
famous  Monument,  for  the  western  scientific 
world. 

From  my  learned  interlocutor  I  gathered  that, 
if  anyone  were  to  bring  the  original  Nestorian 
Monument  into  the  British  Museum,  they  would 
take  as  excellent  care  of  it  there  as  they  do  of  the 
Rosetta  Stone,  inviting  any  possible  objector  to 
come  and  take  it. 

As  to  a  Replica,  even  of  absolute  perfection, 
he  was  somewhat  less  positive,  although  he 
thought  that  it  would  gratefully  be  accepted  and 
erected,  if  made  of  stone. 


ON  THE  GRAND  CANAL  IN  CHILI 


25 


As  to  the  plan  in  its  entirety,  he  expressed 
himself,  with  an  impressive  shrug  of  intolerance, 
as  follows : 

“Young  man,  can  you  not  understand  that, 
were  it  possible  to  transport  this  huge  Tablet,  or 
a  stone  Replica  of  it,  along  the  impassable  Chi¬ 
nese  roads,  such  a  venture  would  have  been  un¬ 
dertaken  long  ago.  You’ll  certainly  get  killed, 
if  you  try!  ” 

To  this  encouraging  admonition  I  mumbled 
something  about  only  difficult  things  being  really 
worth  while  trying  one’s  hand  at,  whereupon  I 
descended  into  the  famous  circular  reading-room 
to  my  books  and  notes  on  China. 

During  the  following  two  weeks  I  brought  my 
ambitions  before  Sir  Clements  Markham,  Sir 
Martin  Conway,  Dr.  Scott  Keltie,  Mr.  Yates 
Thompson,  Dr.  Frith j  of  Nansen,  then  Norweg¬ 
ian  Minister  to  the  Court  of  St.  James’s,  and 
others,  and  it  appeared  to  me  that  almost  every¬ 
body  manifested  sympathy  and  interest  so  far  as 
my  archaeological  scheme  was  concerned. 

Eventually  I  became  the  happy  possessor  of 
the  initial  capital  through  the  sacrificial  expedi¬ 
ency  of  disposing  of  my  personal  belongings, 
including  books  I  loved,  clothes  I  wore,  and 
jewelry  I  used. 

I  thereupon  left  London  ultimo  January  and 
travelled,  via  my  native  Copenhagen,  where  my 


26  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


family  was  made  to  invest,  to  New  York,  where 
I  arrived  on  board  the  R.  M.  S.  “Hellig  Olav” 
on  February  20,  1907. 

In  New  York  I  had  a  standing  engagement 
with  the  well-known  American  editor  and  author, 
James  Davenport  Whelp  ley,  whom  I  had  luckily 
been  able  to  render  some  insignificant  service  on 
a  former  occasion, 

Mr.  Whelpley,  who  displayed  a  keen  interest 
in  my  plan,  went  to  Washington  to  see  Dr.  Cyrus 
Adler  and  other  orientalists  concerning  the  Nes- 
torian  Monument,  and  in  order  to  inquire  into 
the  feasibility  of  my  suggestion,  and,  upon  his 
return  to  New  York,  he  declared  himself  willing 
partly  to  obtain  from  the  late  H.  D.  Lyman,  of 
the  American  Surety  Company,  and  partly  to 
invest,  the  balance  of  the  capital  needed. 

Sir  Purdon  Clarke,  then  the  beloved  director 
of  the  growing  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  in 
New  York,  received  me  several  times  to  discuss 
details,  and  so  as  to  let  me  benefit  by  his  own  ex¬ 
periences  as  a  traveller  in  other  parts  of  Asia.  I 
shall  not  forget  the  fatherly  encouragement  that 
this  old  Englishman  gave  a  young  Dane — such 
a  contrast  to  the  temper  of  his  choleric  colleague 
in  London. 

In  the  basement  of  the  museum  Sir  Purdon 
even  arranged  for  me  to  learn  something  of  tak¬ 
ing  plaster-casts  and  making  paper-“squeezes.” 


ON  THE  GRAND  CANAL  IN  CHILI 


27 


Finally  I  departed  from  the  old  Grand  Cen¬ 
tral  Terminal  on  March  12th  for  Vancouver,  via 
Montreal,  catching  the  C.  P.  R.  R.  M.  S.  “Em¬ 
press  of  India,”  which  I  left,  after  a  stormy  pas¬ 
sage,  at  Yokohama. 

I  proceeded  by  rail  to  Kobe,  and  thence  by  the 
Japanese  vessel,  the  N.  Y.  K.  S.  “Chefoo  Maru,” 
via  Nagasaki  and  Taku,  to  Tientsin,  arriving  on 
April  10th.  It  had  proved  quite  merry  to  meet 
old  Far  Eastern  friends  once  more,  after  three 
years’  absence,  in  both  Japan  and  China. 

The  weeks  from  mv  arrival  in  Tientsin  until 
May  2nd,  when  I  started  for  the  interior,  were 
busily  taken  up  with  engaging,  or  rather  search¬ 
ing  for,  a  well-recommended  interpreter  and  a 
body-servant — called  “boy”  in  China  even  when 
seventy — chartering  a  houseboat,  buying  equip¬ 
ment  and  a  few  provisions,  and  three  hundred 
and  twenty-one  other  important  things. 

I  spent  almost  a  week  in  Peking  in  order  to 
obtain  a  Chinese  passport  through  the  Russian 
Legation,  then  in  charge  of  Danish  interests, 
and,  while  waiting  and  sightseeing,  I  had  oc¬ 
casion  to  consult  a  number  of  men  who  had 
formerly  travelled  in  the  interior. 

Among  them  I  recall  first  and  foremost,  and 
with  infinite  pleasure,  the  American  Minister, 
Dr.  William  W.  Rockhill,  whose  explorations  in 
northwestern  China,  Thibet  and  Mongolia,  some 


28  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


years  previous,  had  aroused  the  admiration  of 
lay  and  learned  alike. 

Although  considerable  time  had  passed  since 
h‘i$  last  expedition,  Mr.  Rockhill  was  able  to  give 
me  many  a  valuable  tip ;  and  in  later  years  I  had 
the  pleasure  on  several  occasions  of  exchanging 
letters  with  him  concerning  matters  of  mutual 
interest. 

Finally  I  received  my  passport  from  the  For¬ 
eign  Office  through  the  legation,  whereupon  I 
returned  to  Tientsin.  There  the  last  touches 
were  put  to  my  meagre  outfit  which  was  designed 
to  stand  between  me  and  actual  discomfort  dur¬ 
ing  the  ensuing  year. 

It  was  early  morning  on  the  2nd  of  May,  when 
my  interpreter,  Mr.  Fong,  and  my  servant,  Masi, 
presented  themselves  at  my  room  in  the  Astor 
House  Hotel  at  Tientsin,  telling  me  that  the 
houseboat  was  ready  for  departure. 

We  made  our  final  arrangements  on  shore, 
and  at  8.15  a.  m.  started  in  our  chartered  ves¬ 
sel  from  the  Peiho  Pontoon  Bridge,  going  up 
the  river,  passing  the  various  foreign  settle¬ 
ments  and  Viceroy  Yuan  Shi  Kai’s  yamen,  the 
simplicity  of  which,  from  the  river  at  least, 
gave  one  the  impression  that  Yuan’s  austere 
economy  must  have  been  of  a  most  self-denying 
character ! 

Passing  under  the  yamen-bridge,  we  entered 


{Top)  My  houseboat  on  the  Grand  Canal  and  the  Wei;  the  sail 
was  made  of  flour-bags  from  Minneapolis. 

{Bottom)  Bridge  over  the  Wei*  River;  the  only  one  between 

Tientsin  and  Taokow. 


ON  THE  GRAND  CANAL  IN  CHILI 


29 


the  native  city  where  mud-houses  were  leaning 
over  the  steep  banks  at  very  suspicious  angles. 

Years  ago,  when  first  in  China,  I  forced  my 
nostrils  to  accept  with  resignation  the  obnoxious 
smells  and  incredible  filth  of  Chinese  city  life; 
but  having  been  away  from  the  Far  East  for 
some  years,  I  must  have  become  europeanized 
once  more.  Consequently,  the  hours  we  spent 
forcing  our  way  through  the  impenetrable  traffic 
of  small  and  large  cargo- junks,  trade-boats,  fer¬ 
ries,  and  pedlar-sampans,  by  no  means  consti¬ 
tuted  any  pleasure  so  far  as  the  functions  of  the 
smelling  organs  were  concerned. 

It  must  be  said  that  our  “captain,”  who  by  the 
way,  had  an  excellent  helmsman  in  his  wife,  and 
his  crew  of  five  sturdy  fellows,  despite  much  un¬ 
necessary  shouting  and  yelling,  did  not  allow 
themselves  to  let  any  chance  for  making  progress 
go  by. 

During  the  five  hours  it  took  to  reach  the 
boundary  of  Tientsin  outer  city,  they  employed 
at  least  half  a  dozen  different  ways  of  propelling 
the  houseboat.  The  outstanding  methods  were 
sail,  oar,  pulling-rope,  punting,  and  scolding 
each  other  and  everybody. 

There  has  always  been  something  about  the 
disagreeable  man  getting  along! 

I  had  found  no  great  difficulty  in  making  a 
contract  with  the  owner  of  a  fairly  neat-looking 


30  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


native  houseboat  to  take  us  to  Taokow,  in  the 
province  of  Honan,  with  all  due  speed,  for  a  con¬ 
sideration  of  forty-five  dollars  Mexican.  This 

could  not  be  termed  excessive  for  a  two  weeks’ 

• 

trip,  with  a  crew  of  practically  seven  men,  in¬ 
cluding  the  captain  and  the  “Mrs.  Captain.” 

When  making  an  agreement  of  this  kind,  it 
can  easily  be  understood  that  it  is  greatly  to  the 
interest  of  the  boat-people  to  hurry  on  to  the 
best  of  their  ability — exactly  as  it  is  to  their 
advantage  to  be  slow  when  the  boat  is  taken  by 
the  day. 

My  secretary-interpreter,  Mr.  Fong,  a  former 
station-master  of  the  Imperial  Railways  of 
North  China,  who  was  born  on  the  island  of 
Chusan,  near  Ningpo,  and  who  seemed  to  possess 
rather  peculiar  notions  as  to  his  conception  of 
China  and  the  “Sons  of  Han,”  spoke  English 
and  a  little  French;  while  my  boy,  besides 
Chinese,  spoke  only  some  German. 

I  was  thus  in  the  fortunate  position  of  being 
able  to  talk  with  either  of  them  without  the  other 
understanding  a  word.  Any  expert  of  the  Chi¬ 
nese  and  their  subtle  mind  would  justly  smile  at 
this  remark,  well  knowing  that  the  two  would 
invariably  intercommunicate  afterwards  in  Chi¬ 
nese;  but  I  have  a  few  good  reasons  to  believe 
that  here  we  met  with  an  exception,  thanks, 
mainly,  to  Fong’s  semi-megalomania. 


ON  THE  GRAND  CANAL  IN  CHILI 


31 


When  at  1.30  p.  m.  we  arrived  at  the  boundary 
of  the  Tientsin  district,  we  were  stopped,  and  my 
Wai-Wu-Pu,  or  Foreign  Office,  passport  from 
Peking  was  examined.  The  same  interesting 
and  important  process  had  to  be  gone  through 
later,  while  passing  through  the  city  of  Yang- 
liu-hsien,  which  has  the  creditable  reputation 
of  supplying  Tientsin  with  most  of  its  Chinese 
“sing-song”  belles. 

While  approaching  a  small,  insignificant  vil¬ 
lage  in  the  afternoon,  my  factotum  and  myself 
sitting  on  the  little  foredeck,  we  heard  a  great 
deal  of  shouting,  and  some  fearful  shrieks.  I 
already  hoped  for  some  excitement — but,  alas, 
the  whole  thing  turned  out  to  be  a  striking  ex¬ 
ample  of  much  ado  about  nothing,  consisting  of 
a  flaming  though  insignificant  fire  in  the  corner 
of  the  straw-roof  of  one  of  the  mud-houses.  The 
conflagration-to-be  was  duly  subdued  and  ex¬ 
tinguished  before  we  had  even  passed  through 
the  village. 

When  it  grew  dark,  the  “hook  was  dropped” 
on  the  mud-embankment,  and  at  nine  I  was 
sleeping  on  my  wooden  bunk,  a  mode  of  resting 
that  reminded  me  of  my  earliest  navy  days,  when 
we  snatched  a  nap  on  the  bare  deck  at  noontime. 

My  sleeping  cabin  was  right  in  the  middle  of 
the  boat.  The  aft-quarters  of  the  vessel  were 
occupied  by  the  skipper,  his  wife  and  his  two 


32  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


children,  separated  from  me  only  by  a  thin 
wooden  partition.  In  front  of  my  den  was  our 
living  cabin,  then  a  small  room  where  my  two 
Chinese  slept,  and  finally  the  fore-deck,  where  I 
sat  in  the  daytime  trying  to  make  observations. 

When  stretching  myself  on  my  bunk  that 
night  I  noticed  a  busy,  black  cockroach  of  rather 
imposing  size,  but  I  paid  no  heed  to  the  creature, 
having  heard  frequently  that  this  peculiarly  dry 
kind  of  insect  was  usefully  instrumental  in 
destroying,  with  never-ceasing  energy,  smaller 
creatures  of  a  still  less  inviting  nature. 

At  one,  however,  I  suddenly  woke  up,  hearing 
the  sounds  of  many  small  workpeople  and  feel¬ 
ing  busy  feet  crawling  over  face,  hair  and  hands. 
I  felt  somewhat  disgusted  when,  after  striking  a 
match,  I  found  the  cabin  literally  swarming  with 
large,  busy,  black  cockroaches. 

It  seemed  that  the  light  rather  frightened  the 
poor  things,  for  most  of  them  disappeared  mys¬ 
teriously  through  secret  trap -doors  of  their  own 
and  all  kinds  of  creaky  crevices,  in  the  course  of 
less  than  a  minute. 

One  large  fellow,  sitting  on  the  ceiling,  or 
rather  under  the  deck,  directly  over  my  head,  got 
such  a  scare  that  he  landed  with  a  thud  on  my 
forehead,  where  he  was  duly  caught  and  after¬ 
wards  deposited  in  a  turned-down  glass.  I  meas¬ 
ured  him  with  mathematical  conscientiousness, 


ON  THE  GRAND  CANAL  IN  CHILI 


33 


finding  him  one  and  a  quarter  inches  long,  before 
sending  him  back  to  his  brethren. 

I  was  thankful  that  I  had  a  mosquito-net  with 
me.  It  never  was  out  of  use  when  I  was  lying 
down — especially  at  one  a.  m.,  when  energetic 
cockroaches  desired  to  hold  their  general  share¬ 
holders’  meeting  on  my  face  and  hair. 

I  did  not  sleep  very  soundly  after  this  incident, 
as  I  had  to  keep  the  candle  burning  for  obvious 
reasons,  my  net  not  yet  being  in  commission. 

Already  at  about  3  a.  m.  the  boat  started  on 
its  southbound  voyage,  and  at  five  I  got  up,  and 
to  the  undiluted  consternation  of  the  “Mrs.  Cap¬ 
tain,”  who  was  at  the  helm,  enjoyed  a  refreshing 
cold  tub  on  the  “promenade”-deck. 

Neither  my  alarm-clock,  nor  my  repeated 
passing  through  their  cabin,  woke  up  my  two 
Chinese  companions,  so,  when  I  had  dressed 
and  smoked  a  pipe  on  deck,  I  took  the  im¬ 
mense  liberty  of  waking  them  up,  a  proceeding 
which  evidently  did  not  meet  with  their  full  ap¬ 
proval.  For  which  very  reason  I  then  and 
there  ordered  breakfast  ready  at  7  a.  m.  every 
morning. 

In  the  forenoon  we  passed  the  great  village- 
inn  at  Tungkiutien,  and  later  on  we  stopped  at 
Tsinghai-hsien,  where  Masi  went  shopping  to 
buy  provisions. 

Mr.  Fong  and  I  took  our  chance  here  to  go 


34  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


ashore  in  order  to  enjoy  a  walk.  I  had,  thanks 
to  old  experience,  taken  a  Cossack  whip  with  me, 
which,  as  expected,  proved  very  effective  in 
keeping  away  the  numerous,  objectionable,  stray 
dogs. 

It  is  but  a  few  years  since  the  Shanghai  Vol¬ 
unteer  Corps  was  ordered  out  to  shoot  all  stray 
dogs  in  the  vicinity  of  the  city,  as  cases  of 
hydrophobia  were  getting  disagreeably  frequent. 
These  mangy  beasts  never  attack  the  natives,  but 
lose  their  temper  very  effectively  whenever  a  for¬ 
eigner  heaves  into  sight. 

We  walked  along  the  Grand  Canal,  making  a 
few  short  cuts,  and  passed  several  villages,  where 
I  found  the  population  busy  and  peaceful,  al¬ 
though,  of  course,  the  adults  stared  wildly,  the 
children  usually  ran  away,  and  an  occasional 
outburst  of  “Yang  Kwei  Tsz,”  or  foreign  devil, 
might  be  heard. 

In  the  afternoon  the  boatmen  took  a  little  rest 
at  Tungkwan-hsien,  and  while  waiting  there,  two 
large  junks,  loaded  with  railway  sleepers  for  the 
Peking  Syndicate  at  Taokow,  our  own  present 
destination,  passed  us. 

My  boy  wanted  to  buy  some  beef,  but  the  local 
magistrate  had  forbidden  the  slaughtering  of 
cattle,  animals  for  field-work  being  very  scarce. 
Still,  he  was  able  to  obtain  a  small  piece  of  veal 
from  some  irregular  source. 


ON  THE  GRAND  CANAL  IN  CHILI 


35 


On  both  sides  of  the  Grand  Canal  a  well- 
trodden  path  is  to  be  found.  Most  of  the  boats 
are  pulled  along  by  from  two  to  seven  men  ac¬ 
cording  to  size,  a  long  rope  being  fixed  to  the 
mast-head  and  extended  to  the  coolies  on  shore, 
who  each  carry  a  sling  and  yoke  over  the 
shoulder  as  the  easiest  way  of  pulling.  It  must 
be  almost  as  hard  work  to  be  a  land-sailor  of  this 
description  as  a  ’rickshaw-coolie — both  very 
often  working  almost  constantly  sixteen  hours 
out  of  the  twenty-four. 

We  did  not  anchor  till  9  p.  m.  for  the  night  at 
a  village  cheerfully  called  Liuliho.  It  was  a 
beautiful  starlit  night;  and  Mr.  Fong  and  I  en¬ 
joyed  a  smoke  and  a  talk  on  deck  before  turn¬ 
ing  in. 

We  left  Liuliho  at  three,  and  when  I  got 
on  deck  at  daylight,  I  found  that  the  scenery 
had  by  no  means  changed.  We  were  still  pass¬ 
ing  slowly  along,  pulled  by  our  five  land-sailors, 
at  a  seeming  speed  of  about  two  miles  an  hour, 
between  the  eternal  mud-banks,  passing  in¬ 
numerable  boats  of  all  descriptions  and  being 
stared  at  by  everybody  who  saw  us. 

Thanks  to  my  mosquito-net,  I  spent  an  excel¬ 
lent  night  and  the  gigantic  cockroaches  held  no 
meeting  on  my  forehead. 

After  having  worked  for  a  couple  of  hours,  I 
jumped  ashore  and  took  a  lonely  walk  along  the 


36  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


mud-embankment,  Mr.  F ong  having  said  that  he 
could  “smell  the  rain  coming.” 

The  district  around  Sinho-hsien  seemed  rather 
poor  as  far  as  the  population  was  concerned. 
I  noticed  many  beggars,  especially  very  old 
women  and  small  naked  boys.  The  ground 
itself,  however,  seemed  to  be  as  fertile  as  every¬ 
where  else  and  well  cultivated,  the  one  wheat- 
field  following  the  other  in  endless,  blessed 
succession. 

The  irrigation  of  the  fields  is  carried  out  on 
quite  an  elaborate  scale.  Along  the  embank¬ 
ments  we  constantly  passed  constructions  for 
irrigation  purposes,  making  one  think  of 
Egypt  and  the  Nile  in  the  days  of  King 
Tutankhamen. 

A  hole  of  about  the  size  of  a  square  yard  is  dug 
in  the  mud,  so  that  the  milk-chocolate-coloured 
water  of  the  canal  may  freely  flow  in  and  form  a 
small  pond.  On  either  side,  and  above  this 
muddy  pool,  and  almost  exactly  half  way  up  the 
embankment,  two  coolies  are  stationed.  By 
manipulating  and  constantly  swinging  a  double 
set  of  ropes,  which  is  attached  to  the  edge  and 
bottom,  respectively,  of  an  ordinary  round 
basket,  they  cleverly  succeed  in  throwing  up¬ 
wards  a  basket-full  of  water — alternately  dip¬ 
ping  and  turning  the  basket  through  the  medium 
of  the  ropes — the  water  ‘landing”  in  an  upper 


ON  THE  GRAND  CANAL  IN  CHILI 


37 


pond,  dug  on  the  top  of  the  embankment,  from 
which  it  is  led  through  miniature  canals  all  over 
the  fields. 

In  some  cases,  where  the  embankment  is 
very  high,  four  coolies  and  three  ponds  are 
necessary  for  the  carrying  out  of  the  work,  and 
in  a  few  instances,  but  these  are  exceptions,  we 
find  that  a  well  has  been  dug  a  little  distance 
from  the  bank,  its  bottom  being  under  the  level 
of  the  water-surface — thus  simply  allowing  a 
single  man  to  pull  up  a  large  pail  of  water  at  the 
time,  which  is  disposed  of  in  the  usual  way. 

In  the  afternoon  we  had  quite  an  exciting  race, 
when  our  pull-man  decided  to  overtake  a  large 
cargo- junk,  loaded  with  mats;  we  had  only  five 
men,  while  the  cargo-boat  used  seven.  I  never 
found  much  “sporting”  ambition  in  China,  but  I 
must  say  that  I  did  admire  the  twelve  fellows 
who  literally  ran  amuck  with  the  passion  of 
hoped-for  victory. 

After  about  twenty  minutes,  we  had  crept  up 
close  to  the  stern  of  the  larger  boat — inch  by  inch 
— and  ten  minutes  more  sufficed  to  bring  the 
victory  home  to  our  men,  who  had  then  been 
working,  with  two  very  short  intervals,  for  four¬ 
teen  hours. 

That  evening  we  anchored  south  of  the  city  of 
Changsha-hsien,  in  heavy  rain  and  strong  north¬ 
east  wind. 


38  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


In  the  late  afternoon  I  was  sitting  on  deck, 
when  we  passed  what  had  once  been  a  little  live 
baby-girl.  She  was  lying  stiff  and  cold  on  the 
mud  in  rather  a  desolate  part  of  the  district,  and 
I  have  not  the  faintest  doubt  that  it  was  a  genu¬ 
ine  case  of  infanticide — one  of  the  worst  curses 
of  Chinese  community  life.  Her  tiny  neck  was 
quite  swollen,  as  if  she  had  been  strangled  before 
having  been  thrown  into  the  water. 

Infanticide  in  China  is  a  common  crime.  Yet, 
a  boy,  unless  deformed,  is  never  deprived  of  his 
life — the  girls,  only,  must  suffer. 

In  the  district  of  Hankow  on  the  Yang-tse, 
statistics  have  proven,  so  far  as  I  remember,  that 
the  proportion  between  the  sexes  is  ten  to  seven. 
In  Fukien  province,  Amoy  being  the  worst  of¬ 
fender,  an  average  of  upwards  of  forty  per 
centum  of  the  baby-girls  are  put  out  of  life 
before  having  peeped  into  it.  The  law  does  not 
try  to  cope  with  this  evil,  because  such  infanti¬ 
cide  is  not  considered  a  crime  from  a  Chinese 
point  of  view. 

Poverty,  of  course,  is  the  main  reason,  but 
often  disappointment  at  not  getting  the  longed- 
for  son,  or  desire  to  save  the  inevitable  dowry,  or 
the  likelihood  of  not  being  able  to  find  a  suitable 
husband,  are  considered  quite  sufficient  excuse 
for  committing  this  more  saddening  than  really 
infamous  crime. 


ON  THE  GRAND  CANAL  IN  CHILI 


39 


Greece  and  Rome  did  not  give  a  good  example. 
Solon  gave  permission  to  practice  infanticide, 
while  Plato  and  Aristotle  strongly  encouraged 
the  act.  In  old  Rome,  likewise,  infanticide  was 
officially  permitted,  or  at  least  tolerated. 

The  captain  started  our  vessel  before  sunrise, 
and  when,  a  little  later,  I  ascended  the  “com¬ 
panion-ladder”  which  very  modestly  consisted  of 
one  step,  I  watched  the  beautiful  dawn  while 
enjoying  my  cold  tub.  After  “shaving  and 
hairdressing,”  and  a  quick  breakfast,  consisting 
of  two  eggs,  dry  biscuit,  and  tea,  I  spent  a  few 
hours  on  deck,  where  the  strong  sunlight  per¬ 
mitted  me  to  take  some  fine  snapshots  with  my 
kodak. 

At  the  village  of  Fungkiakow  we  passed  a 
Chinese  camp,  which  is  supposed  to  hold  five 
hundred  of  Yuan  Shih  Kai’s  banner-men. 

If  Mr.  Fong  had  not  told  me  the  opposite,  I 
would  have  thought  the  camp  deserted  some 
decades  ago,  as* we  could  see  no  sentries,  nor  any 
banners  flying  from  the  solitary  flagstaffs.  But, 
as  it  was  only  noon,  perhaps  nobody  was  up  yet. 

In  the  afternoon  we  passed  a  second  case  of 
infanticide,  only  that  this  time  the  poor  child  was 
floating  on  the  surface  of  the  dirty  water. 

As  is  generally  known,  Sunday  is  not  cele¬ 
brated,  or  rather  no  weekly  holiday  exists,  in 
China.  A  working  Chinaman  gets  only  one  holi- 


40  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


day,  in  the  prolonged  meaning  of  the  word,  dur¬ 
ing  the  year.  That  is  when  Chinese  New  Year 
sets  in. 

But  then  he  certainly  makes  up  for  lost  time 
and  eats  and  drinks  for  close  on  a  fortnight,  like 
a  madman. 

Chinese  New  Year  usually  falls  from  four  to 
six  weeks  after  our  own.  It  is  a  generally 
acknowledged  fact  even  among  the  Chinese 
themselves,  that  the  death-rate  among  all  classes 
rises  enormously  during  the  two  weeks  of  the 
New  Year  celebrations,  thanks  to  all  forms  of 
immoderation. 

Our  land-sailors  worked  all  Sunday,  until  we 
anchored  for  the  night  just  outside  the  city  of 
Tungpaotu-hsien. 

Mr.  Fong  and  I  succeeded  in  finding  quite  a 
catching,  if  not  wholly  complimentary,  name  for 
our  five  land-sailors.  We  called  them  “camel- 
men.”  To  sit  on  the  observation-deck  and  look 
at  these  fellows,  as  they  walked  slowly  but  stead¬ 
ily  ahead,  is  really  a  study  that  craves  for  an 
analogy  of  some  kind. 

And  I  think  we  have  found  the  right  idea! 
They  walk  along,  behind  each  other,  steadfastly, 
in  slow  tempo,  with  an  aspect  as  if  they  were 
carrying  on  their  bent,  pulling  necks  and  backs 
the  greater  part  of  “peccavi  mundi.” 

I  pity  them  as  they  work  along  in  the  scorch- 


ON  THE  GRAND  CANAL  IN  CHILI 


41 


ing  midday  sun;  but  I  cannot  alter  their  lot — 
only  occasionally  buy  them  an  orange.  And  I 
do  not  think  they  suffer;  their  deeper  instincts 
are  not  sufficiently  developed  to  allow  them  to 
reason  much.  They  think  but  very  little,  know 
no  agitators,  and  eat  precisely  like  animals, 
gestures  and  sounds;  they  take  what  sleep  they 
can  get,  and  they  perform  without  demur  their 
— camel-work. 

While  in  Peking  I  several  times  had  an  op¬ 
portunity  to  go  out  to  the  western  part  of  the 
Manchu  city,  and  it  thus  came  to  pass  that  I 
often  followed  the  camel-track  through  greater 
Peking.  I  tried  to  study  the  strange  way  of  be¬ 
having,  peculiar  to  these  animals,  as  they  walk 
along  one  after  another — a  string  of  camels — in 
a  slow  and  dignified  procession. 

Their  eyes  are  very  expressive,  sometimes  sup¬ 
plicating,  and  they  always  turn  their  heads  and 
look  attentively  at  you. 

They  have  a  weird,  unnatural  way  of  carrying 
their  heads,  as  if  desirous  of  intimating  that  they 
are  under  perpetual  unjust  treatment.  When 
their  humps  are  heavily  loaded  with  cross-sacks, 
containing  all  kinds  of  merchandise,  some  of 
their  strange  pride  seems  to  vanish;  but  when 
thev  return  without  burden,  their  heads  and 
necks  sway  from  one  side  to  another  in  a  strange, 
frivolous,  cast-back  manner. 


42  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


I  have  little  or  nothing  to  say  about  Peking. 

It  is  unquestionably  one  of  the  most  interest¬ 
ing  cities  I  have  ever  had  the  good  fortune  to 
visit,  but  it  is  not  my  intention  in  this  book  to  try 
to  describe  accessible  Peking.  What  is  the  good 
of  my  endeavouring,  after  only  a  few  days’  visit, 
to  give  anything  like  an  exact  or  complete  ac¬ 
count  of  even  my  own  impressions  of  that  mag¬ 
nificently  walled  city,  with  its  legations  and 
legation-guards ;  its  mediaeval,  crass-conservative, 
and  yet  internationally  modern  aspect;  its  filth 
and  awful  dust  when  the  wind  blows ;  its  beauti¬ 
ful  “temple”  and  Altar  of  Heaven,  where  the 
emperor  worshipped  at  summer  and  winter  sol¬ 
stices  ;  its  interesting,  decaying  lama-temples ;  its 
“big  bell”;  its  wide,  imperial  avenues,  and  nar¬ 
row,  poverty-stricken  lanes;  its  vices;  its  tre¬ 
mendous  wall  pierced  by  sixteen  gates,  each  an 
imposing  tower;  its  “Forbidden  City”;  its 
“China  in  Convulsion”;  and  its  many  more 
unique  features;  what  is  the  use,  I  say,  when  so 
many  far  more  able  men  have  already  done  so 
before? 

We  left  Tungpaotu-hsien  in  the  middle  of  the 
night,  making  our  headway  along  the  ever- 
winding  canal. 

It  was  quite  a  cool  day,  the  thermometer  only 
registering  62  degrees  at  noon,  so  when  I  had 
finished  my  morning’s  work  and  ascertained  that 


ON  THE  GRAND  CANAL  IN  CHILI 


43 


we  had  gained  twenty-four  miles  during  the  past 
twenty-four  hours,  with  sixteen  hours’  continual 
work,  I  went  ashore  to  get  a  little  exercise.  Mr. 
Fong  again  appeared  hostile  to  the  idea  of  prom¬ 
enading  ;  at  any  rate  he  did  not  want  to  come. 

It  certainly  was  considerably  more  interesting 
to  walk  on  the  high  mud-embankment,  where  a 
fair  view  of  the  country,  with  its  numerous  mud- 
built  villages,  and  fertile  wheat-fields,  might  be 
obtained,  than  to  sit  all  day  on  the  observation 
deck,  watching  the  embankment,  which  practi¬ 
cally  conceals  everything  except  the  backs  of  the 
“camel-men”  and  the  “cafe-au-lait”-coloured 
water,  with  its  many  water-snakes,  its  floating 
filth,  its  sparse  water-fowl,  and  an  occasional 
frightened  turtle. 

I  walked  quickly  along  the  bank,  leaving  the 
boat  far  behind  me ;  I  passed  unmolested,  though 
wildly  stared  at,  through  a  couple  of  small  vil¬ 
lages,  and  eventually,  when  I  wanted  to  rest  in 
order  to  allow  the  boat  to  overtake  me  and  pick 
me  up,  I  came  across  a  big  flock  of  sheep,  herded 
by  three  or  four  sunburnt  lads  from  fifteen  to 
eighteen  years  of  age. 

They  looked  the  very  picture  of  health  and 
evidently  carried  all  their  belongings  with  them 
in  a  strap  over  the  shoulder.  They  governed 
their  flocks  with  long  whips  without  ever  actu¬ 
ally  hurting  the  animals. 


44  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


The  boys  were  just  going  to  water  the  sheep, 
when  I  turned  up  at  the  ferry-landing,  where  I 
intended  to  wait  for  the  boat ;  and  so  it  happened 
that  we  met. 

They  were  not  a  bit  shy — these  sons  of  nature 
— they  came  and  touched  my  sun-helmet  and 
goggles  and  tried  my  Cossack-whip,  which  I  re¬ 
gret  to  admit  they  evidently  found  useless  for 
their  purposes. 

We  quickly  got  on  amicable  terms  and,  during 
the  half  hour  which  ensued  before  the  boat  ar¬ 
rived  at  that  sunny  place,  we  played  “hide  and 
seek”  amongst  the  hilly  graves  on  the  fields ;  we 
ran  races,  all  of  which  I  lost;  we  caressed  the 
newly-born  lambs,  and  we  even  arranged  a  real 
fight  between  two  paterfamilias  of  the  goat-tribe, 
who  certainly  did  their  best  to  dash  out  each 
other’s  brains — ramming  one  another  in  admi¬ 
rable  naval  style. 

Eventually  my  houseboat  came  up,  and  I  had 
to  leave  the  merry  company. 

Mr.  Fong,  the  interpreter,  was  on  deck,  some¬ 
what  uneasy  about  my  long  absence,  and  the 
young  suburban  shepherds  besieged  him  with 
questions  in  order  to  satisfy  their  natural  curios¬ 
ity.  He  later  on  told  me  that  they  had  asked 
about  my  name,  age  and  occupation,  and  that 
they  thought  I  was  a  J apanese  schoolboy ! 

No  love  was  ever  lost  between  my  secretary- 


ON  THE  GRAND  CANAL  IN  CHILI 


45 


interpreter,  Mr.  Fong  Hsien  Chang  of  Ningpo 
origin,  and  my  boy-cook,  Masi,  of  Tientsin  city. 
I  was  happy  that  it  was  so.  It  may  sound  para¬ 
doxical,  but  I  preferred  that  they  should  not  be 
on  the  best  of  terms.  I  foresaw  in  Tientsin  that 
it  would  come. 

I  took  very  good  care  not  to  let  them  meet 
until  the  morning  of  departure  in  order  to  pre¬ 
vent  any  previous  understanding  between  them 
— partly  because  I  dislike  the  oriental  passion  of 
mind  for  secret  union,  partly  because  it  might 
hurt  the  ultimate  hoped-for  results  of  my 
mission. 

Indeed,  until  Mr.  Fong  and  Masi  parted  com¬ 
pany  on  the  upper  Tan  river  many  a  week  later, 
they  never  had  a  chance,  thanks  to  the  hostility 
between  them,  to  indulge  in  any  intrigue  against 
their  alien  employer — a  great  boon  indeed. 

After  a  good  day’s  work  we  anchored  at  7.30 
p.  m.  near  the  village  Anling-hsien,  this  being 
our  last  “port”  in  the  province  of  Chili — the 
domains  of  that  energetic  viceroy  Yuan  Shih 
Kai,  the  man  who  came  nearer  than  any  other 
Chinese  since  the  days  of  the  Ming  Dynasty,  to 
creating  a  China  for  the  Chinese,  but  whose  im¬ 
perial,  imperialistic,  and  imperious  tendencies  in 
the  long  run  proved  his  own  undoing. 


II 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO 

HONAN 

AT  2.30  a.  m.  on  May  the  7th  I  woke  up, 
and  the  usual,  inevitable  set  of  noises  in¬ 
formed  me  that  we  were  leaving  Anling. 
When  I  got  on  deck  we  had  crossed  the  border 
between  the  provinces  of  Chili  and  Shantung. 

Shantung  is  the  kitchen  garden  of  North 
China,  the  amount  of  vegetables  grown  in  the 
province  far  exceeding  the  production  of  the 
neighbouring  provinces.  All  through  the  day  we 
passed  men  and  boys  busily  occupied  in  washing 
vegetables  in  the  delicious  mud-water  of  the 
canal. 

We  passed  Sangkiayuen  early  in  the  morn¬ 
ing,  being  our  first  visit  to  a  Shantung  city.  I 
was  quite  unable,  in  spite  of  Mr.  Fong’s  prom¬ 
ises,  to  detect  the  faintest  difference  between  this 
town  and  Anling,  or  any  other  Chili  hamlet. 

In  the  forenoon  I  went  ashore  alone  for  a  two 
hours’  stroll.  I  walked  across  country,  proving 
the  cause  of  many  an  encounter  between  the 
mangy  stray  dogs  and  my  good  whip.  I  believed 
myself  unlucky  so  far  as  Chinese  pariah-dogs 


46 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  47 


were  concerned,  because,  whether  in  the  country 
or  in  a  city,  I  invariably  was  attacked. 

I  once,  some  five  years  ago,  had  to  shoot,  in 
sheer  self-defence,  a  big  brute  of  a  yellow  cur  in 
Tiendong,  close  to  Ningpo;  and  I  shall  certainly 
take  great  pleasure  in  exterminating  a  few  more 
pro  bono  publico ,  before  I  once  again  get  back  to 
western  civilization. 

Walking  along,  I  struck  upon  a  “joss-house” 
in  sad  decay.  Mr.  Fong,  being  an  adversary  of 
exercise,  was  not  with  me;  although  of  course  it 
really  was  part  of  his  duty  to  accompany  me.  I 
concluded,  without  the  corroboration  of  Mr. 
Fong,  that  this  temple  had  once  been  dedicated 
to  the  God  of  Agriculture  by  the  villagers  of 
the  vicinity. 

Now  it  was  certainly  in  a  most  distressing 
state  of  disrepair.  Half  of  the  roof  had  fallen 
in,  while  wind  and  rain  had  washed  away  the  gilt 
and  colour  from  the  face  and  garb  of  one  side  of 
the  poor  joss. 

Minor  idols  were  standing  on  either  side  of  the 
farmers’  god,  or  rather  had  been  standing,  two  of 
these  having  been  buried  under  the  ruins  of  the 
roof,  and  two  others — the  one  being  the  Goddess 
of  Mercy,  Kwan  Yin — leaning  affectionately 
against  one  another,  each  having  lost  a  foot. 

The  whole  scene  was  painful,  whether  the 
decay  was  due  to  poverty  of  the  district,  want  of 


48  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


interest  in  those  special  deities,  or  perhaps  to  that 
marvelous  and  almost  incomprehensible  Chinese 
idea  of  “supposee  one  thing  makee  spoil,  no  use 
makee  repair.” 

During  the  day  we  passed  an  impressive  fleet 
of  seven  large  junks,  with  new  sails  unfurled 
from  strange  tripod-masts,  reminding  one  of 
H.  B.  M.  S.  “Dreadnought”;  and  late  in  the 
afternoon  we  met  one  of  Yuan  Shih  Kai’s  river 
despatch-luggers,  speeding  northwards  for  a 
fresh  breeze. 

In  the  evening  we  arrived  at  Teh-chow,  where 
we  were  to  spend  the  night;  and  when  we  had 
finished  our  frugal  dinner,  a  note  written  in 
faultless  English,  and  signed  J.  Wong  Quincey, 
was  brought  to  me.  Mr.  Quincey  intimated  that 
he  was  dead  tired  of  his  own  society  after  eight 
days’  solitude  in  his  houseboat,  and  that  he  would 
be  glad  to  call. 

We,  ourselves,  were  not  averse  to  a  temporary 
caller  offering  a  bit  of  mental  change,  so  we 
spent  a  couple  of  pleasant  hours  after  young 
Quincey  had  made  his  debut. 

He  was  quite  a  handsome  young  Chinese,  who 
spoke  excellent  English  and  who  was  open  to 
enter  into  animated  discussions  on  all  subjects 
that  ever  came  within  the  scope  of  human  effort. 
He  was  evidently  subconsciously  anti-foreign,  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  he,  as  he  intimated,  was  a 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  49 


great  friend  of  Diana,  and  foreign  guns,  and 
other  alien  paraphernalia.  To  my  amazement 
he  declined  a  Manila  cheroot,  but  asked  whether 
he  might  not  borrow  one  of  my  briar-pipes. 

I  was,  of  course,  delighted! 

He  used  eighteen  of  Bryant  and  May’s  large, 
expensive  club-matches  for  half  a  pipe  of  to¬ 
bacco,  and  then  stopped  in  despair. 

Mr.  Quincey,  senior,  whose  name  I  knew  well, 
had  an  interesting  career.  He  was,  as  it  pleased 
his  son  to  express  himself,  formerly  closely  con¬ 
nected  with  General  Gordon  and  his  “Ever 
Victorious  Army”  during  the  Taiping  rebellion. 
Later,  General  Gordon  took  young  Quincey, 
senior,  with  him  to  England  and  there  gave  him 
eleven  years  of  good  education. 

The  elder  Quincey  then  returned  to  his  native 
country  and  has  since  been  engaged  in  police 
work.  He  has,  with  great  success,  superintended 
the  Chinese  police  forces  in  Shanghai  and  Tient¬ 
sin  native  cities ;  and  he  was  then  organizing  the 
police  of  Tsinan-fu,  the  capital  of  Shantung. 

His  youthful  son  was  going  to  visit  him  on  his 
way  from  Tientsin  to  Shanghai,  and  thus  we  had 
the  good  fortune  to  meet  him  at  Teh-chow,  where 
he  was  going  to  leave  his  boat  and  proceed 
by  cart. 

We  left  Teh-chow  at  the  unearthly  hour  of 
1.30  a.  m.  The  morning  was  rather  cold  and 


50  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


windy  for  May,  and  having  the  wind  against  us, 
we  only  made  slow  headway. 

At  about  10  a.  m.  we  stopped  for  a  while  at  a 
small  town  called  Hsiaotsichwang,  where  Mr. 
Fong,  who  appropriately  wore  a  pair  of  black 
embroidered  satin  slippers,  and  I  went  ashore  to 
look  at  a  Buddha  temple. 

The  statue  of  the  son  of  the  King  of  Kapil- 
avastu,  who  later  became  the  Buddha,  “The  One 
Through  Whom  Truth  Is  Known,”  was  old  and 
faded,  but  the  temple  possessed  a  sub-department 
for  finances,  where  the  indigenous  civil  and 
military  gods  were  exhibited  for  money,  attired 
in  gorgeous  gold  and  silver  caps  and  gowns, 
helmets  and  uniforms.  They  displayed  vivid, 
colourful  countenances,  with  black  glass-eyes, 
beaming  with  satisfaction  at  the  thought  of  heav¬ 
ily  filled  money-bags,  and  their  protruding  stom¬ 
achs  made  one  think  of  tables  groaning  under 
dishes  unnumbered. 

We  were  shown  around  by  a  very  kind 
Buddhist  priest,  who  invited  us  to  tea;  but  un¬ 
fortunately  we  had  to  decline,  time  not  allowing 
us  to  stay  longer  than  a  few  minutes. 

The  weather  being  very  unsettled,  I  did  not  go 
ashore  for  my  daily  walk,  but  spent  the  after¬ 
noon  reading,  writing,  eating,  smoking  and  ob¬ 
serving  the  turtles,  snakes,  and  other  branches  of 
natural  history  from  the  observation-deck. 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  51 


At  night  we  anchored  in  the  wilderness,  sev¬ 
eral  li  *  from  the  nearest  town.  All  around  us, 
thunderclouds  were  reaching  up  towards  the 
zenith,  concealing  moon  and  stars,  and  shooting 
forth  dazzling  lightning. 

And  so  we  all  went  to  bed  tired,  tho’  prepared 
for  a  night  of  nature’s  troubles — 

Kublai  Khan,  Emperor  of  China,  of  Mongol 
birth,  and  peerless  beacon  of  the  Yuen  dynasty, 
China’s  first  foreign  reign,  is  frequently  ad¬ 
judged  the  greatest  emperor  the  Far  East  has 
ever  seen. 

About  Kublai  Khan  the  famous  Venetian  ad¬ 
venturer  and  traveller,  Messer  Marco  Polo,  says 
“that  the  emperor  has  caused  a  water  communi¬ 
cation  to  be  made  from  this  city  (Kwachou)  to 
Peking  in  the  form  of  a  wide  and  deep  channel, 
dug  between  river  and  river,  between  lake  and 
lake,  like  a  great  river  on  which  large  vessels 
may  ply.” 

And,  indeed,  it  must  be  said  that  Kublai  had 
the  work  carried  out  to  such  a  degree  of  perfec¬ 
tion  that  we,  who  travel  on  the  “Chah  Ho,”  or 
“River  of  Flood  Gates,”  today,  must  admire 
with  something  almost  akin  to  awe,  this  tre¬ 
mendous  piece  of  work,  which  was  successfully 
consummated  some  six  centuries  ago. 


*  About  3  li  to  1  mile,  although  the  li  varies. 


52  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


The  Grand  Canal  was  dug  so  as  to  establish 
an  inland  water-communication  between  north 
and  south,  between  Peking  and  Hangchow,  and 
from  east  to  west  by  linking  up  the  large  rivers 
with  one  another. 

Today  the  Grand  Canal  practically  starts  in 
Tientsin  native  city,  but  formerly  one  might 
continue  the  voyage  along  the  Peiho  River  to 
Peking  and  disembark,  under  favourable  water- 
conditions,  close  to  the  British  Legation.  The 
bigger  boats  unloaded  at  the  east-gate. 

Now  the  waterway  only  takes  one  so  far  as 
Tungchowchi,  a  few  miles  from  Peking. 

During  the  past  week  I  had  constantly  noticed 
that  the  canal  has  indeed  a  very  winding  course, 
except  for  a  few  long  straight  stretches.  There 
can  hardly  be  any  doubt  about  the  fact  that, 
when  the  canal  was  originally  dug,  nature  was 
employed  as  extensively  as  possible  to  facilitate 
the  enormous  task. 

I  thus  feel  confident  that  what  would  repre¬ 
sent  a  stupidly  winding  course  for  an  artificial 
canal  through  unobstructed  flat  territory,  is  sim¬ 
ply  the  bed  of  former  rivers  which  have,  so  to  say, 
been  absorbed  by  the  “Yun  Ho”  or  <c  Transit 
River.”  The  former  rivers  and  rivulets,  further¬ 
more,  were  deepened  and  widened  so  as  to 
correspond  harmoniously  with  the  interlinking 
straight  lines  of  artificial  waterway. 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  53 


All  along  the  canal  we  find  small  hills  of  mud 
on  both  sides.  They  are  deposited  there  for  the 
frequent  and  very  necessary  repairs  of  the  banks. 
Although  the  Chinese  mind  is  not  usually  bent 
on  repairing  anything,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
the  Grand  Canal  is  kept  in  a  remarkably  good 
condition  considering  its  great  age,  and  its  enor¬ 
mous  importance  is  by  no  means  underestimated 
by  the  Chinese  officials  or  population. 

The  Grand  Canal  and  the  Great  Wall  are  the 
two  grandest  monuments  to  Chinese  inclination 
of  bygone  days  for  titanic  undertakings.  The 
former  is  today  almost  as  important  for  inland 
communication  as  it  was  on  the  day  it  opened; 
while  the  latter  is  more  like  a  tombstone  to 
wasted  human  labour  and  imperial  vanity,  al¬ 
though  a  tombstone  well  worth  studying. 

We  spent  rather  a  miserable  night,  for  nature 
was  very  angry. 

At  about  one  hour  after  midnight  the  expected 
thunderstorm  broke  loose  over  our  heads,  sig¬ 
nalling  its  coming  by  sending  forth  a  few  blind¬ 
ing  darts  of  lightning  accompanied  by  several 
regiments  of  heavy  field-artillery. 

When  the  captain’s  children  began  to  cry  on 
the  other  side  of  the  thin  partition  which  sepa¬ 
rated  me  from  them,  and  when  from  my  castrum 
doloris,  in  a  flash  of  lightning,  I  had  perceived 
Mr.  Fong  busily  securing  windows  and  fancy- 


54,  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


doors,  I  got  up  on  deck  myself,  in  order  to  ad¬ 
mire  the  beautiful  and  violent  spectacle. 

It  was  a  “cold”  thunderstorm,  which  promised 
nothing  good  for  the  coming  day;  but  the  sight, 
which  lasted  for  a  little  over  half  an  hour,  made 
one  forget  both  the  temperature  and  the  desolate 
surroundings. 

I  was  almost  blind  and  deaf  when  I  turned 
in  once  more;  and  before  I  fell  asleep  I  had 
time  to  think  about  the  fate  of  a  houseboat, 
far  away  from  human  aid,  struck  by  lightning, 
and  consequently  metamorphosed  into  a  bon¬ 
fire  for  the  delectation  of  roving  ancestral 
spirits. 

In  the  early  morning  we  stopped  at  a  village 
called  Chengkiakow,  where  Masi  went  ashore  in 
order  to  buy  provisions.  I  gave  him  my  last  few 
Mexican  dollars,  but  he  soon  returned,  saying 
that  he  could  not  have  these  coins  exchanged  for 
copper  cash,  the  little  Chinese  coins  with  a  square 
hole  in  the  center,  worth  about  800  to  a  Mexican 
dollar. 

If  I  had  had  some  lately  coined  Chinese  dol¬ 
lars,  it  would  have  been  all  right  in  every  town 
along  the  canal ;  but  as  I  had  none  such  with  me, 
we  were  obliged  to  resort  to  the  Sycee,  with 
which  the  Chartered  Bank  had  furnished  me. 

Sycee  is  paid  in  “shoes”  of  so  and  so  many 
taels,  a  tael  averaging  about  $1.33  Mexican. 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  55 


The  “shoes,”  which  by  the  way  happen  to  look 
like  soft  hats  and  not  like  foot-gear,  are  simply 
silver  ingots  of  a  certain  weight. 

The  Sycee  system  is  exceedingly  difficult  and 
disadvantageous  to  the  itinerant  merchant,  ex¬ 
plorer,  or  traveller,  who  constantly  loses  when 
exchanging — the  “shoes”  being  quite  expensive 
to  buy,  but  comparatively  difficult  to  sell  at  a 
decent  rate  of  exchange.  Thus,  on  a  ten  tael 
“shoe”  I  received  seventy-five  Mexican  cents 
less  than  I  had  paid  for  the  identical  “shoe”  a 
week  before  in  Tientsin. 

And  still  it  is  necessary  to  carry  Sycee  along, 
because  it  is  by  no  means  feasible  in  the  farther 
interior  to  use  even  Chinese-coined  dollars  or 
ten-cash  pieces  equal  to  one  Mexican  cent. 

And  while  on  the  subject  of  troublesome  native 
money,  I  may  as  well  dwell  on  another  aspect  of 
finance,  the  Chinese  system  of  “squeeze,”  a  pet- 
system  of  graft  and  corruption  obtaining  in  the 
old  Land  of  Sinim. 

It  is  part  of  native  life,  and  morally  fully 
recognized,  even  permitted,  that  everybody  who 
has  the  faintest  chance  to  do  so,  shall  “levy  a 
tax”  or  “secure  a  commission”  on  every  copper- 
cash  that  goes  through  his  hands. 

This  is  called  squeezing. 

Everybody  squeezes  in  China — the  highest 
official  as  well  as  the  humblest  coolie. 


56  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


When  in  China  you  order  a  carriage  through 
the  hotel,  the  porter  gets  his  squeeze  from  the 
livery-stable;  when  you  give  the  boy  your  laun¬ 
dry,  he  gets  his  squeeze  from  the  washerman; 
when  you  travel  in  the  interior — Heaven  forbid 
you  should  ever  have  to! — and  you  have  to  en¬ 
trust  your  boy-cook  with  funds,  he  will  get  his 
squeeze  on  both  his  own  provision-bill  and  from 
the  provision-dealer,  besides  a  very  good  squeeze 
from  the  exchange-shop,  amounting  altogether  to 
some  fifteen  or  twenty  per  centum.  When,  in 
China,  a  government  official  has  to  buy  fodder, 
guns,  ammunition,  uniforms,  or  anything  else,  or 
when  he  has  to  pay  out  salaries,  allowances  or 
wages,  he  holds  himself  indemnified  for  the 
trouble  by  pocketing  a  good  squeeze  in  hard  cash ; 
and  when  you  die,  you  may  rest  assured  that  your 
life  in  China,  as  well  as  your  funeral,  represents 
a  beautifully  selected  bouquet  of  more  or  less 
conspicuous  squeezes. 

Yet,  all  this  is  only  a  side-issue  of  life  in  China, 
and  it  is  no  use  to  kick  unless  one  is  actually 
robbed. 

Being  springtime,  it  was  hardly  to  be  ex¬ 
pected  that  we  should  be  able  entirely  to  avoid 
a  sand-storm. 

One  fine  day  we  went  through  that  experience 
from  10  a.  m.  till  7  p.  m.,  and  it  was,  to  say  the 
least,  very  trying.  I  was  sitting  writing  in  the 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  57 


forenoon,  when  suddenly  one  of  the  windows 
blew  open  and  a  strong  gust  of  wind  swept  away 
my  maps  and  loose  calculation-slips.  I  thought 
that  we  had  deserved  a  pleasant  day  after  the 
thunderstorm  of  the  night,  but  my  hope  was 
doomed  to  disappointment. 

The  storm  had  been  but  a  messenger  of 
warning. 

For  nine  hours  the  houseboat  with  the  twelve 
human  beings  it  contained,  was  kept  a  prisoner, 
chained  to  the  same  spot,  on  the  bank  of  the  deso¬ 
late  canal,  the  craft  quivering  from  mast-top  to 
keel  every  time  one  of  the  violent  gusts  of  wind 
shook  its  frame,  as  if  trying  to  break  it  asunder, 
pressing  it  with  full  force  against  the  muddy 
bank. 

For  nine  hours  we  saw  no  sun,  no  sky,  and  no 
clouds ! 

Overhead  a  thick,  impenetrable  pall  of  yellow- 
gray  sand-dust  had  lowered  itself.  The  storm 
whirled  the  sand  in  every  direction,  and  as  the 
trying  hours  passed,  everything  became  covered 
with  a  thick  layer  of  immovable  sand-dust,  the 
gravity  of  which  was  such  that,  when  a  book  was 
raised  from  its  horizontal  position,  the  sand 
would  gracefully  slide  off  and  fall  in  a  smoking 
heap  on  the  table. 

The  sand,  as  the  hours  went  by  without  the 
wind  diminishing  at  all,  got  into  our  ears,  eyes, 


58  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


mouths  and  nostrils.  We  suffered  agonies,  and 
became  irritable  and  nervous;  we  found  sand  in 
our  butter  and  in  our  soup,  and  our  hair  grew 
dirty  and  discoloured  from  the  dust. 

Eventually,  being  afraid  of  completely  losing 
my  temper  from  sheer  nervous  irritability  at  the 
disagreeable  and  trying  situation,  I  turned  into 
my  bunk  which  was  literally  covered  with  sand 
in  spite  of  the  mosquito-net,  and  slept  for  two 
hours,  a  large  silk  handkerchief  tied  around 
my  head. 

Everybody  was  feeling  nervously  exhausted, 
and  I  do  not  wonder  that  ague  is  a  common  dis¬ 
ease  among  the  people  of  the  Grand  Canal. 

We  started  from  our  desolate  anchorage  in  the 
middle  of  the  night,  and  before  breakfast  we  suc¬ 
ceeded,  thanks  to  the  assistance  of  the  captain, 
in  getting  a  few  pounds  of  the  worst  sand-dust 
removed  from  our  living  quarters. 

In  the  morning  we  passed  two  or  three  places 
where  the  canal,  which  is  unquestionably  in  bet¬ 
ter  repair  in  the  province  of  Chili  than  in  Shan¬ 
tung,  was  very  narrow,  small  islets  having 
formed  in  the  middle  of  the  current.  We  passed 
the  wreck  of  a  large  cargo- junk,  which  had 
doubtless  foundered  in  the  darkness  of  some 
stormy  night. 

At  the  district  city  of  Wucheng  we  stopped 
for  provision  purposes.  The  boy  went  up  to  the 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  59 


town,  while  Mr.  F ong  and  I  took  a  walk  up  and 
down  the  embankment. 

But  the  mob  of  curious  natives,  mostly  street- 
arabs  and  old  men,  were  so  annoying  that  I 
preferred  to  board  our  proud  vessel  again  and 
smoke  a  solitary  pipe  in  meditation,  trying  to 
figure  out  why  the  people  of  Shantung  did  not 
seem  half  as  nice  as  the  people  of  her  northern 
sister,  Chili. 

In  the  afternoon,  although  a  disagreeable  wind 
raised  tons  of  dust  in  the  air,  I  went  ashore  for  a 
cross-country  walk,  Mr.  Fong,  as  usual,  pre¬ 
ferring  to  remain  on  board.  I  peeped  into  many 
houses  of  farmers  and  labourers. 

The  men,  and  even  the  women,  were  busily 
occupied  in  the  surrounding  fields,  and  I  conse¬ 
quently  found  most  of  the  houses  deserted  for  the 
time  being.  Everywhere  I  noticed  an  utter  ab¬ 
sence  of  comfort.  No  furniture,  no  wooden 
floors,  very  few  utensils — at  most  an  abandoned 
oil-can,  or  an  occasional  uncovered  couch. 

They,  I  mean  the  men  and  women  of  inner 
Shantung,  must  be  almost  entirely  cut  off  from 
the  outer  world.  They  seem  a  strange  mixture 
of  the  refreshing,  work-inspiring  sea-breeze  from 
the  east,  and  the  stale,  mind-depressing,  Chinese 
civilization,  four  thousand  years  or  more  from 
the  west. 

Shantung  is  historically  famous  because  the 


60  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


great  teacher  Confucius  was  born,  b.  c.  551,  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  province.  The  well- 
known  philosopher,  Mencius,  Confucius’  inter¬ 
preter,  who  was  23  years  old  when  Plato  died, 
was  also  born  in  Shantung,  b.  c.  371. 

I  visited  another  Buddha  temple  during  my 
afternoon  walk.  The  priests  were  very  kind  and 
evidently  most  astonished  at  seeing  a  white  man 
unaccompanied.  They  were  as  anxious  to  ex¬ 
amine  my  Russian  whip,  and  especially  my 
stockings — I  wore  khaki  knickerbockers — as  I 
was  to  examine  their  temple  and  idols,  so  we  got 
on  very  well  together. 

Besides  the  newer  temple,  which  was  in  toler¬ 
ably  good  repair,  there  was  an  old  temple  on  a 
little  artificial  hill  behind  the  new  one.  This 
temple  had  evidently  once  been  a  costly  structure 
and  still  contained  the  upper  half  of  a  bronze 
Buddha,  who  had  been  sitting  on  a  large  lotus 
flower.  This  idol,  or  rather  what  remained  of  it, 
had  fallen  to  the  floor  from  the  smashed  altar, 
and  rather  looked  as  if  it  had  originally  been  cast 
in  Japan. 

Half  an  hour’s  brisk  walk  brought  me  to  the 
village  of  Yufangcheng,  where  I  waited  for  the 
houseboat.  Eventually,  this  excellent  vessel, 
pulled  by  its  five  “camel-men”  who  had  cele¬ 
brated  the  sand-storm  of  yesterday  as  a  holiday, 
arrived. 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  61 


Mr.  Fong,  who  had  borrowed  my  collapsible 
field-chair  for  use  on  the  observation-deck,  told 
me  a  sad  story  about  an  unexpected  gust  of  wind, 
which  had  carried  my  chair  away  to  an  eternal 
rest  at  the  bottom  of  the  canal.  I  quietly  re¬ 
minded  him  that,  as  I  had  especially  asked  him 
before  I  left  not  to  leave  the  deceased  chair  un¬ 
guarded  on  deck,  I  should  find  it  necessary  to 
deduct  three  dollars  when  his  salary  was  once 
more  due. 

At  9  p.  m.,  after  having  left  behind  us  twenty- 
seven  miles,  besides  the  folding-chair,  we  an¬ 
chored  for  the  night  amidst  the  noises  of  the 
village  of  Panpitien. 

The  skipper  started  the  boat  a  little  later  than 
usual,  but  I  was  up  early  to  admire  the  Ta  Wan 
Pagoda,  which  is  over  a  thousand  years  old  and 
nearly  150  feet  high.  The  pagoda  is  situated  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  city  of  Lintsing-chow. 

This  town,  which  exercises  the  power  of  a  “fu,” 
or  prefectual  city,  is  called  Lin-tsing-fu  on  the 
German  map  which  I  use ;  but  this  is  hardly  cor¬ 
rect  as  the  city  has  only  got  the  rank  of  “chow,” 
also  pronounced  “cho”  or  “chou,”  or  first-class 
district  town. 

The  German  military  maps  of  China  proper 
are  undoubtedly  the  best  maps  accessible  to  the 
general  public,  though  the  spelling  of  the  names 
is  sometimes  most  confusing  when  one  has  to 


62  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


write  in  English.  The  drawback  about  the  Ger¬ 
man  maps  is  that  most  of  the  distances  are  not 
quite  accurate.* 

It  was  abnormally  cold  for  the  middle  of  May, 
the  thermometer  only  registering  58°  F.  when,  at 
7  a.  m.,  we  anchored  near  Lintsing-chow. 

When  the  boy  had  finished  his  provision  pur¬ 
chases  on  shore,  and  I  the  writing  of  my  diary, 
Mr.  Fong,  most  elegantly  attired,  and  I,  went 
ashore  together.  We  headed  for  the  American 
Protestant  mission,  where  we  had  the  good  luck 
to  meet  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ellis,  who  received  us  in  a 
most  hearty  manner.  They,  together  with  a 
woman  physician,  were  in  charge  of  this  mission- 
station,  where  schools  for  boys  and  girls,  a  small 
hospital,  native  teachers  and  preachers,  and  sev¬ 
eral  other  departments  are  maintained  at  a  con¬ 
siderable  yearly  outlay  of  money. 

After  a  cup  of  coffee — we  kept  only  tea,  cocoa, 
and  beef-tea  on  the  houseboat — Mr.  Fong  went 
to  have  his  forehead  shaved  and  his  queue  beauti¬ 
fied,  a  process  that  occupied  the  better  part  of 
ninety  minutes  for  any  true  gentleman. 

In  the  meantime,  Mr.  Ellis  was  kind  enough 
to  take  me  for  a  long  walk. 

We  first  went  to  the  site  of  land  where  the 
American  mission  had  formerly  had  its  build¬ 
ings.  It  was  discouraging  to  hear  that  only 

*  There  are  later  and  better  maps  now. 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  63 


seven  years  before,  a  large  station  with  its  pul¬ 
sating  life  had  been  standing  here,  and  that  Box- 
erism  had  not  left  a  single  stone,  when  it  swept 
Jhe  country  in  1900. 

We  passed  a  Mohammedan  mosque — there 
were  not  less  than  four  in  the  city — and  a  little 
later  arrived  at  a  Buddhistic  temple  in  good 
repair. 

We  went  inside  and  looked  at  the  gilded  image 
of  Buddha,  as  well  as  the  richly  coloured  Chinese 
idols,  representing  law,  authority,  war,  music, 
and  a  half  dozen  other  faculties. 

The  sun  was  out,  and  the  temperature  was 
rapidly  mounting,  as  we  walked  along  the  city 
wall,  a  heavy  stone  structure,  which  indicates 
that  Lintsing-chow  was  once  destined  to  become 
an  important  center. 

Outside  the  north-gate  we  found  a  couple  of 
scores  or  more  of  big  mud-hills  and  two  huge 
tombstones  with  elaborately  chiselled  inscrip¬ 
tions.  These  mounds  cover  the  graves  of  all  the 
local  victims  of  the  Taiping  massacre  of  the 
early  sixties. 

I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  Ellis  for  the  following 
story. 

After  the  fateful  massacre  of  the  peaceful 
citizens  of  Lintsing-chow,  the  central  administra¬ 
tion  at  Peking  despatched  a  special  commissioner 
to  investigate  the  extent  of  the  damage  done  by 


( 

64  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 

the  Taipings  and  the  number  of  victims  of  the 
massacre.  The  mandarin  reported  that  the  num¬ 
ber  of  victims  was  100,000,  but  the  government 
forthwith  informed  him  that  this  figure  was  by 
no  means  satisfactory.  He  accordingly  added 
an  0,  which  brought  the  total  up  to  one  million. 
The  latter  figure  was  more  appreciated !  Today, 
the  story  goes  that  every  one  of  the  graves  con¬ 
tains  10,000  victims.  The  men  and  women  were 
buried  separately  and  each  sex  has  its  own 
tombstone. 

We  entered  the  city  by  the  north-gate,  and  it 
was  strange  to  notice  that,  within  the  wall,  like  in 
old  Babylon,  extensive  wheat-fields  were  culti¬ 
vated,  with  plenty  of  room  to  spare  for  growing 
vegetables  and  the  like.  Where  the  fields  are 
now,  houses  formerly  were  standing,  but  political 
rebellions,  like  the  Taiping  and  Boxer  troubles, 
were  not  only  guilty  of  murder  and  plunder,  but 
also  of  sweeping  the  country  clean  after  them,  as 
they  went. 

Near  the  northern  gate  is  a  beautiful  Con- 
fucian  temple. 

In  these  quiet  temples  are  no  idols,  no  priests, 
no  pictures,  no  noise,  no  need  of  reform.  The 
Confucian  temples  all  over  China — they  amount 
tQ  about  1,400  and  are  mostly  found  in  bigger 
cities — are  solemn,  heavy  structures  of  wood, 
painted  a  sombre  red.  In  the  anterior  court  is 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  65 


found  an  artificial  stone-pond  with  marble  or 
granite  balusters  and  a  stone-bridge,  and  in  the 
main-temple,  on  the  central  altar,  in  front  of 
which  is  placed  a  bronze  incense-burner  with 
candelabra,  we  notice  a  simple  but  beautifully 
carved  tablet,  giving  the  name  of  the  great  sage, 
and  mentioning  the  fact  that  he  has  been  exalted 
to  share  rank  with  the  gods. 

On  either  side  of  the  main  altar  we  find  the 
names  of  six  of  the  twelve  Confucian  apostles, 
and  in  two  long  sheds  on  both  sides  of  the  court, 
and  consequently  not  in  the  chief-temple  proper, 
we  find  the  names  of  the  seventy  odd  disciples. 

The  sanctity  and  solemn  peace  of  a  Kong- 
fu-tsz  temple  is  rarely  forgotten  by  anybody  who 
has  been,  if  only  for  a  few  minutes,  under  its 
spell. 

We  walked  back  through  the  city  and,  passing 
one  of  the  mosques  with  its  lively-coloured, 
triple-pointed  roof,  entered.  As  we  had  no  de¬ 
sire  to  take  our  shoes  off,  we  did  not  walk  into 
the  building  itself,  but  simply  looked  into  the 
large,  gloomy,  chilly  room  from  the  outside. 
Arabian  characters  were  in  evidence  everywhere, 
and  had  it  not  been  for  the  Chinese  surroundings, 
I  might  have  thought  myself  in  Port  Said  or 
C  onstantinople. 

The  Moslems  in  China — there  are  over  200,000 
in  Peking  alone — are  forced  to  put  a  tablet  with 


66  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


the  emperor’s  name  in  their  mosques,  but  they 
place  a  tablet,  dedicated  to  their  great  prophet 
immediately  behind  it. 

The  province  of  Kansu  in  northwestern  China 
is  almost  entirely  Mohammedan,  and,  in  1860- 
1875,  the  greater  part  of  the  bloody  Moslem 
rebellion  was  instigated  and  fought  in  that  far-off 
province,  and  in  its  eastern  neighbour,  Shensi. 

The  Alkoran  has  never  been  translated  into 
Chinese. 

From  the  mosque  we  went  back  to  the  mission, 
on  the  way  passing  the  old  bed  of  the  Grand 
Canal,  which  was  abandoned  by  Kublai  Khan 
and  re-dug  outside  the  city.  Some  six  bridges 
lead  over  this  dry  bed. 

About  two  years  ago,  one  of  these  stone 
bridges  was  on  the  verge  of  collapsing,  but  no¬ 
body  took  the  initiative  to  have  it  repaired.  It 
would  have  meant  disaster  to  the  neighbouring 
houses,  were  the  bridge  not  repaired  at  once,  so 
a  Buddhist  priest,  realizing  this,  voluntarily  in¬ 
carcerated  himself  in  a  stone-pillar  of  the  bridge, 
swearing  that  he  would  not  eat  nor  drink  until 
sufficient  money  had  been  collected  for  effect¬ 
ing  the  essential  repairs.  Private  contributions 
saved  the  life  of  the  enterprising  and  courageous 
priest,  so  that  his  departed  spirit  should  not 
haunt  the  district. 

At  the  mission  I  bade  Mrs.  Ellis  good-bye, 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  67 


but  not  until  I  had,  with  some  hesitation,  ac¬ 
cepted  a  welcome  gift  of  tinned  butter  and 
condensed  milk  from  their  admirably  well- 
provisioned  store-room. 

Mr.  Ellis  came  down  to  the  boat  and  did  us  the 
pleasure  of  sharing  our  frugal  tiffin. 

We  left  Lintsing-chow  a  little  later,  after  a 
most  interesting  stop  of  some  five  hours,  and 
went  up  the  Wei-ho,  or  Wei  River — Lintsing- 
chow  being  the  practical  terminus  for  larger 
boats  going  south  on  the  Grand  Canal.  Still 
further  south,  from  the  city  of  Tungchang,  as 
far  as  Tsining,  the  canal  is  devoid  of  water;  but 
from  the  latter  town  it  is  possible  to  proceed 
south  by  boat  as  far  as  Shanghai  and  Hang¬ 
chow,  crossing  the  Yang-tse  at  Chingkiang. 

South-south-west  we  sped  against  the  current 
of  the  Wei-ho  which  hails  from  the  mountains  in 
southeastern  Shansi.  There  is,  incidentally,  in 
China  at  least  one  other  river  Wei,  which  passes 
near  the  capital  of  Shensi  province,  Sian-fu,  and 
forms  a  most  important  affluent  of  the  Yellow 
River. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  we  passed  the  body  of  a 
drowned  man,  surrounded  by  curious  spectators, 
evidently  waiting  for  the  magistrate’s  deputy  to 
perform  an  inquest. 

Some  years  ago,  at  Shanghai,  I  had  to  cross 
the  river  once  a  day  from  the  Chinese  Bund  to 


68  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


the  Yangkadoo  Wharf.  I  usually  employed  the 
same  sampan  to  take  me  to  the  opposite  bank  of 
the  Whampoa. 

One  day  I  found  a  drowned  man  tied  with  a 
bit  of  rope  to  one  of  the  poles  of  the  jetty.  The 
other  end  of  the  rope  was  knotted  around  his 
ankle.  I  concluded  the  corpse  was  awaiting  the 
Chinese  coroner’s  examination. 

Thirteen  days  in  succession,  I  beheld  the  dead 
body,  the  appearance  of  which  did  not  improve. 
On  the  fourteenth  it  had  vanished.  I  hoped  it 
had  been  buried. 

But  the  next  morning  I  encountered  the  same 
corpse  some  four  miles  down  the  river,  when 
visiting  the  Hongkew  and  Shanghai  Wharf. 
The  bit  of  rope  was  still  around  the  ankle — but 
the  other  end  had  been  cut  clean  with  a  knife. 
Probably  the  Chinese  ferry-folk  at  the  native 
jetty  got  tired  of  waiting  for  the  coroner  and  cut 
the  poor  departed  loose  from  Chinese  territory. 

That  very  same  afternoon,  after  I  had  seen 
him  for  the  fourteenth  time,  he  was  buried  by 
order  of  the  authorities  of  the  Municipal  Council 
of  the  International  Settlement. 

Our  second  houseboat  Sunday  turned  out  a 
quiet  day  of  rest. 

It  was  rather  hot  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  the 
thermometer  showing  92°  F.  in  the  shade;  and 
after  having  finished  the  preceding  notes  on 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  69 


Lintsing-chow  and  some  other  work  at  about 
eleven  o’clock,  I  found  that  it  was  already  too 
broiling  for  a  walk  on  shore.  I  consequently 
stayed  on  board,  sleeping  two  hours  and  a  half 
in  the  afternoon,  Mr.  Fong  being  on  the  look¬ 
out  for  worthy  objects  for  my  camera  on  the 
observation-deck,  with  instruction  to  call  me  if 
anything  should  occur. 

But  nothing  happened,  and  I  enjoyed  my 
peaceful  Sabbath  fully  as  much  as  the  “camel- 
men”  had  enjoyed  the  sand-storm  three  days 
before. 

The  Wei-ho  is  not  as  wide  as  the  Grand  Canal, 
and  in  some  places  the  river  is  very  shallow.  We 
touched  the  bottom  every  quarter  of  an  hour,  and 
a  few  times  were  delayed  through  running 
aground. 

It  will  easily  be  understood  that  when  the 
“camel-men” — we  now  had  six,  since  leaving 
Lintsing-chow — suddenly  pull  their  long  ropes 
sideways,  the  rope  as  already  mentioned,  being 
fixed  to  the  top  of  the  mast,  the  boat  is  apt  to 
careen  very  sharply. 

Such  a  manoeuvre  resulted  in  the  breaking  of 
our  three  solitary  saucers !  The  cups  themselves 
did  not  share  their  fate,  the  reason  for  which 
stroke  of  luck  I  was  unable  to  ascertain;  but 
every  single  plate  had  surely  broken  had  they  not 
been — enamelled.  Such  was  our  simplicity  of 


70  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


household,  that  we  ate  everything  on  metal 
plates,  imagining  that  it  was  sterling  silver,  and 
only  our  tea  was  drunk  out  of  porcelain  cups — 
subsequently  minus  saucers. 

When  eventually  we  got  to  Sian-fu,  I  ex¬ 
pected  that  we  should  have  retained  only  a  frac¬ 
tion  of  our  property — having  already  lost  a 
chair,  a  carving-knife,  and  three  beauteous  sau¬ 
cers.  I  shivered  when  I  thought  of  the  possibil¬ 
ity  of  losing  my  “library ’’-trunk,  or  even  my 
seven  razors  from  William  Whiteley. 

We  anchored  at  Chinkwan  for  the  night.  It 
was  a  warm,  starlit  evening  and  I  enjoyed  a  pipe 
on  deck  before  joining  the  cockroaches. 

The  following  day  we  continued  our  winding 
way  against  the  current  of  the  Wei-ho,  the  water 
getting  perceptibly  clearer  and  cleaner  as  we 
were  nearing,  mile  by  mile,  its  mountain  sources. 
In  some  places,  where  the  water  was  not  too 
deep,  it  was  possible  even  to  discern  the  bottom, 
covered  with  coarse  greenish-brown  water-plants. 

Once  more  it  was  a  very  hot  day,  and  I  was 
agreeably  surprised  to  observe  even  adult  China¬ 
men  come  down  to  refresh  themselves  with  a 
bath.  It  has  always  been  said,  and  not  quite 
without  foundation,  that  the  Chinese  wash  their 
clothing,  while  the  Japanese  wash  their  bodies. 
This  old  saying  seemed  to  be  contradicted  along 
the  banks  of  the  Wei. 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  71 


At  about  10  a.  m.  we  left  the  province  of 
Shantung  with  its  too  dense  and  consequently 
very  poor  population,  which  in  some  instances 
amounts  to  two  thousand  souls  to  the  square 
mile,  and  entered  that  southern  arm  of  Chili, 
Nan-Chili,  which  reaches  down  between  Shan¬ 
tung  and  Honan  as  far  as  35  degrees  N.  L.. 
We  re-entered  Chili  close  to  the  village  of 
Hsiautan-hsien  and,  after  another  uneventful 
day,  anchored  in  the  evening  at  the  village  of 
Chataukow. 

We  started  long  before  dawn  from  this  hamlet, 
and  the  only  thing  that  happened  during  the  day, 
worth  recording,  was  that  we  again  left  the 
province  of  Chili,  entering  its  neighbour  Honan. 

We  were  stopped  and  “examined”  at  the  first 
Likin,  or  internal  revenue  station  in  Honan;  and 
when  the  petty  official  had  admired  a  tattered 
“Union  Jack,”  which  the  captain  had  insisted 
upon  flying  ever  since  we  left  Tientsin,  because 
he  labours  under  the  delusion  that  he  is  carrying 
a  British  officer  as  passenger,  and  had  inspected 
my  crimson,  Chinese  visiting-card,  which  clearly 
shows  that  I  am  a  Dane,  the  rusty  wire-rope 
barring  the  river  was  graciously  lowered,  and  we 
proceeded  in  peace,  the  official  evidently  having 
forgotten  all  about  the  possible  existence  of  a 
Chinese  Foreign  Office  passport. 

We  crept  slowly  along  all  day,  having  both 


72  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


wind  and  water  against  us,  and  eventually 
stopped  over  night  at  an  insignificant  village 
called  Santichwang. 

Strange  to  say,  fine  as  some  of  the  German 
General  Staff  maps  are,  the  Wei-ho  and  sur¬ 
roundings  have  certainly  been  step-motherly 
treated.  I  thus  found  a  stretch  of  nearly  thirty- 
five  miles,  where  not  a  single  name  appears  along 
the  river-bank  on  the  map,  but  where  we  passed 
several  towns  and  villages. — 

The  forenoon  following,  we  saw  but  very  few 
boats.  Those  we  met  were  going  down-stream 
with  heavy  cargoes  of  gray  granite,  which  we 
were  told  came  from  the  mountainous  parts  of 
southeastern  Shansi. 

The  day  was  fairly  cool,  so,  having  finished 
writing,  I  put  on  my  walking-boots,  when,  to  my 
consternation,  I  observed  in  passing  through  the 
fore-cabin  on  my  way  to  the  deck,  Masi,  the  boy- 
cook,  behaving  himself  in  the  strangest  way  on 
his  bunk.  He  twisted  and  writhed  as  if  suffering 
from  an  attack  of  cholera  or  cramp,  and  when  I 
asked  him  what  was  the  matter,  he  started  crying 
— he  was  very  manly  then,  this  4 ‘boy”  of  thirty — 
and  stammered  in  worse  German  than  usual  that 
he  had  pains  in  “the  head,  and  everywhere.” 

I  had  not  the  slightest  doubt  about  the  fellow 
simulating,  so  I  told  him  not  to  behave  as  if  he 
were  a  child  of  five,  and  then  went  ashore,  telling 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  73 


Mr.  F on g  to  go  down  and  find  out  whether  Masi 
was  perhaps  devising  some  ingenious  scheme  for 
carrying  himself  and  my  “Sycee”-shoes  back  to 
the  fleshpots  of  Tientsin  upon  our  arrival  at 
Taokow. 

An  hour  later,  I  was  onboard  again  after  a 
most  refreshing  walk  among  wheat-fields,  and 
pariah-dogs,  and  irrigation-coolies. 

Mr.  Fong  reported  that  Masi,  who  had  been 
perfectly  all  right  in  the  morning,  had  told  him 
that  he  felt  very  “faint,”  and  that  he  had  never 
been  “abroad”  before.  This  was  contradictory 
to  his  original  statement  that  he  had  travelled  in 
Mongolia,  so  I  gave  him  his  choice  between  leav¬ 
ing  the  boat  immediately — what  a  mess  if  he  had 
done  so! — or  getting  up  at  once  and  preparing 
tiffin. 

He  chose  the  latter  alternative,  washed  the 
tear-grease  off  his  face,  prepared  tiffin,  and  once 
more  got  on  good  terms  with  us  and  his  health. 
He  was  not  “dying,”  after  that,  but  I  firmly 
believe  that  he  suffered  somewhat  from  a  form  of 
lazy  nostalgia,  which  made  him  think  that  we 
were  getting  too  far  away  from  Tientsin  for  him 
ever  to  get  back. 

In  the  afternoon  we  passed  Kauticheng,  and 
later  arrived  at  Wulung,  where  I  perceived  a 
boat  like  ours,  flying  the  French  tricolor .  This 
looked,  indeed,  like  the  possibility  of  a  social 


74.  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


entente  cordiale  on  Chinese  soil.  As  we  drew 
nearer,  Mr.  Fong  was  able  to  read  the  characters 
in  the  white  of  the  flag;  they  showed  that  the 
boat  belonged  to  a  Roman  Catholic  mission. 

Meanwhile,  the  customs  officials  came  down  to 
inspect  our  boat,  and  I  let  my  interpreter  ask 
whether  the  boat  carried  any  missionaries. 

“Oh,  no,”  was  the  reply,  “the  captain  of  the 
boat,  like  many  others,  are  converts,  and  sail 
under  the  French  flag,  whereby  they  are  usu¬ 
ally  much  more  quickly  passed  by  the  inland 
revenue  authorities  than  ordinary  boats.” 

In  the  afternoon  we  were  able  to  see  the  Tung- 
shan,  or  Tung  mountains,  in  the  distance  some 
thirty  miles  away.  It  was  quite  refreshing  to  the 
eye  to  see  some  hills  again,  after  two  weeks  of 
pancake-country. 

There  was  an  appreciable  difference  between 
the  skipper’s  and  my  own  calculations  concern¬ 
ing  the  exact  distance  from  Tientsin  to  Taokow. 

According  to  my  various  maps,  the  distance  is 
315  miles,  which  means  that  sixteen  working 
hours  per  day  during  fourteen  days  gives  an 
average  speed  of  1.4  miles  an  hour,  or  twenty- 
two  and  one-half  miles  per  diem .  This,  I  think, 
is  almost  correct,  when  taking  into  consideration 
my  several  walks  ashore,  when  I  have  been  in  a 
position  better  to  compare  the  speed  of  the  craft. 

The  captain’s  idea  was  1600  li ,  or  ca.  484  miles 


THROUGH  SHANTUNG  INTO  HONAN  75 


— rather  a  difference!  I  do  not  think  that  the 
unmapped  windings  of  the  Grand  Canal  and  the 
Wei-ho  make  up  for  a  difference  of  169  miles, 
which  would  show  an  average  speed  of  2.2  miles 
per  hour  and  34.6  miles  per  diem  of  sixteen 
hours — a  speed  I  consider  well-nigh  unattainable 
when  pulled  by  “camel-men.” 

In  the  evening  we  anchored  close  to  a  small 
village  called  Sankuinmiao. 


Ill 

FIRST  TASTE  OF  CARAVAN  TRAVEL 


I  HAVE  later  been  able  to  ascertain  from  out¬ 
side  sources  that  my  houseboat  skipper’s 
estimate  of  the  distance  from  Tientsin  to 
Taokow  is  the  more  correct,  the  distance  being 
usually  put  down  at  the  figure  of  five  hundred 
miles.  All  credit  is  thus  due  to  our  boatmen  for 
a  speedy  passage,  and  the  average  progress  of 
the  “camel-men”  must,  accordingly,  have  been  a 
fraction  over  two  miles  per  hour. 

The  value  of  the  German  ordnance-maps, 
which  one  would  certainly  think  ought  to  be  cor¬ 
rect  so  far  as  the  province  of  Shantung  is  con¬ 
cerned,  can  thus  hardly  be  said  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  the  traveller  who  seeks  exact 
information. 

The  English  military  maps  are,  in  so  far  as  I 
have  been  able  to  find  out,  only  procurable  by 
applying  directly  to  Staff  Headquarters  in 
India.  I  have  never  seen  the  British  maps, 
but  hope  that  they  are  more  correct  than  the 
German. 

The  best  general  map  of  China  proper  today, 
although  on  a  smaller  scale,  is  unquestionably 


76 


FIRST  TASTE  OF  CARAVAN  TRAVEL  77 


Dr.  Bretschneider’s  Russian  map,  an  English 
edition  of  which  was  issued  in  1901.  Still,  in  the 
interest  of  truth,  it  must  be  said  that  even  this 
map  gives  the  above-mentioned  distance  as  only 
about  350  miles. 

The  China  Inland  Mission  published  a  map  of 
China  in  1905,  which  is  an  excellent  copy  of 
Bretschneider’s  English  edition,  but  on  a  larger 
scale.  This  map  may  be  had  in  London,  Shang¬ 
hai,  Toronto,  and  Melbourne,  at  the  mission 
offices,  for  a  most  reasonable  price. 

We  started,  as  usual,  early  in  the  morning, 
and  at  9  a.  m.  arrived  at  the  old  city  of  Hsun- 
hsien.  We  had  to  lay  down  the  mast  here  when 
passing  under  the  first  bridge  we  had  seen  since 
leaving  Tientsin,  two  weeks  earlier. 

There  are  no  bridges  over  the  Grand  Canal, 
and  all  cross-traffic  is  undertaken  on  ferries,  of 
which  one  or  two  are  to  be  found  in  all  the  cities 
and  villages,  and  everywhere,  where  a  highway 
or  common  road  crosses  the  more  important 
waterway.  Ferries  of  this  kind,  which  are  able 
to  cross  with  carts,  mules,  pack-animals,  mer¬ 
chandise  of  every  description,  and  passengers, 
are  really  government  property  and  gratuitous 
to  the  traveller,  but  the  boatmen  are  always  on 
the  lookout  for  a  few  copper-cash  as  squeeze 
which  in  most  cases  are  very  well  deserved. 

A  little  distance  from  Hsun-hsien,  when 


78  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


speeding  along  before  a  strong  northerly  breeze, 
we  passed  a  fisherman  standing  on  a  small  bam¬ 
boo  raft.  He  caught  his  fish  through  the  medium 
of  four  cormorants,  strange-looking  birds  that 
dive  under  the  surface  of  the  river,  catching  every 
fish  they  can  get  hold  of.  A  piece  of  string,  tied 
around  their  necks,  prevents  them  from  actually 
enjoying  their  prey,  and  when  the  birds  have 
caught  a  few  victims,  their  master  pulls  them 
back  to  the  raft,  where  they  willingly  give  up 
their  take.  This  way  of  catching  fish  is  very 
ancient  and  simple  and  is  more  common  in  South 
China — that  is  south  of  the  Yang-tse — than  in 
the  north. 

Early  in  the  afternoon — after  two  weeks  of 
continual  travel — we  arrived  at  our  first  desti¬ 
nation,  Taokow. 

This  village  was  originally  intended  to  become 
the  chief  shipping-place  of  the  Peking  Syndi¬ 
cate;  but  since  the  Kin-Han,  or  Peking-Hankow 
Railway,  has  been  completed,  its  significance  has 
greatly  diminished.  The  syndicate  has  built  a 
mining  railway  from  the  coal-mines  at  Chiaotso 
to  Taokow,  but  this  line  has  now,  like  most 
others,  been  taken  over  and  “bought”  by  the  Im¬ 
perial  Government,  although  the  Peking  Syndi¬ 
cate  still  manages  the  line  on  behalf  of  the 
Chinese. 

After  having  paid  off  the  houseboat,  together 


FIRST  TASTE  OF  CARAVAN  TRAVEL  79 


with  a  little  wine-money  for  the  “camels”  and 
a  few  ten-cash  pieces  for  the  skipper’s  chil¬ 
dren,  we  had  our  luggage  loaded  on  a  couple  of 
large  carts,  which  took  it  to  the  small  but  neat 
railway-station. 

Viceroy  Yuan  Shih  Kai  has  instituted  an  ef¬ 
fective  protection  system  on  all  governmental 
lines,  every  station  having  a  “garrison”  of  an 
officer  and  some  twenty  soldiers  or  perhaps 
rather  gens-d'armes.  They  are  armed  with  mod¬ 
ern  rifles  and  with  sticks,  and  appear  on  the 
platform  whenever  a  train  comes  in. 

The  Chinese  station-master,  who  was  kind 
enough  to  shelter  my  luggage  and  allot  a  room 
to  Mr.  Fong  and  my  servant,  introduced  me  to 
the  two  foreigners  on  the  spot,  Mr.  Clark,  who 
was  in  charge  of  the  engines,  and  traffic-inspector 
Watson.  The  former  hospitably  put  me  up  at 
his  house,  where  I  spent  a  very  pleasant  evening, 
and  where  for  the  first  time  in  a  fortnight  I 
rested  in  a  comfortable  bed. 

I  had  the  good  fortune  to  meet  the  mandarin- 
comptroller  of  the  line,  Mr.  Wong.  He  was  a 
most  intelligent  Chinese  gentleman  who  had 
studied  in  the  United  States.  After  having 
found  out  that  we  had  several  mutual  acquaint¬ 
ances  in  Chinese  official  circles,  we  had  a  long 
and  pleasant  talk  together. 

The  next  morning  we  took  the  early  train  to 


80  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


Chiaotso,  where  the  present  sphere  of  action  in 
Honan  of  the  Peking  Syndicate  is  centred. 

The  Syndicate  has  not  been  dancing  on  roses. 
The  Chinese  Government,  especially  since  the 
Russo-Japanese  war,  has  done  nothing  but  make 
matters  as  difficult  as  possible  for  this  promising 
concern.  It  appears  that  the  Chinese  are  un¬ 
willing  to  permit  the  officials  of  the  syndicate  to 
carry  out  their  duties  according  to  the  conces¬ 
sions  originally  granted,  and  while  it  is  perhaps 
true  that  the  Chiaotso  coal-shafts  do  not,  as  yet, 
yield  a  dividend,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
the  syndicate’s  most  valuable  property  lies  in  the 
province  of  Shansi  and  that  the  Chinese  Govern¬ 
ment,  for  the  time  being,  hinders  the  syndicate  in 
working  its  property  in  that  rich  province.  The 
British  and  Chinese  governments  are  naturally 
exchanging  notes  in  this  important  matter,  but 
the  result  is  difficult  to  predict,  and  the  question 
may,  of  course,  create  considerable  friction  at 
any  moment. 

In  the  beginning  of  1908  the  Shansi  conces¬ 
sions  of  the  Peking  Syndicate  were  yielded  to  the 
Chinese  against  an  indemnity.  There  were  many 
foreign  residents  who  expressed  their  astonish¬ 
ment  at  this  unexpected  result  of  the  prolonged 
negotiations. 

The  comfortable  train  passed  the  old  city  of 
Weihui  where  we  obtain  an  excellent  view  of  the 


FIRST  TASTE  OF  CARAVAN  TRAVEL  81 


city  walls  and  the  tall  pagoda  from  the  station 
platform. 

At  noon  we  passed  the  junction  between  the 
syndicate  line  and  the  Kin-Han  railway,  and  at 
2.30  p.  m.  we  arrived  at  Chiaotso. 

The  Peking  Syndicate’s  mining  property  is 
situated  about  a  mile  from  the  station. 

The  engineer-in-chief,  Mr.  Alexander  Reid, 
received  me  in  a  most  cordial  manner,  put  me  up 
at  his  house  and  arranged  a  small  dinner-party 
in  the  evening,  Dr.  Bryson,  Locomotive-Super¬ 
intendent  Ridgway  and  Mr.  Brown,  manager  of 
the  local  mines,  being  present.  The  accountant, 
Mr.  Foley,  joined  us  in  the  evening. 

Before  dinner  I  was,  by  the  kind  permission 
of  Mr.  Reid,  shown  over  the  works;  the  shafts, 
the  machinery,  the  work-shops  alike  commanding 
my  deepest  admiration  when  I  remembered  that 
we  were  in  the  heart  of  the  Chinese  Empire. 

In  the  afternoon  I  was  introduced  in  the  small 
club,  maintained  by  the  score  of  foreigners  on  the 
spot.  I  found  English  beer,  an  English  billiard- 
table,  English  papers  and  an  excellent  American 
gramophone. 

The  following  day  being  Saturday,  I  was  in¬ 
vited  to  young  Dr.  Bryson’s  hospitable  roof,  and 
after  having  visited  the  little  hospital,  where 
numerous  victims  of  railway  accidents  are  looked 
after,  Mr.  Foley,  the  doctor  and  I  had  an  ex- 


82  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


cellent  cross-country  ride  lasting  some  three 
hours.  Afterwards  we  went  for  a  swim  in  the 
cool  reservoir — nine  feet  deep — the  thermom¬ 
eter  having  registered  nearly  100°  F.  in  the 
shade. 

Overwhelmed  by  the  hospitality  and  kindness 
of  the  Peking  Syndicate  people,  and  full  of 
pleasant  memories  of  the  past  two  days,  I  took 
the  train  Sunday  morning  early  for  the  terminus 
of  the  line,  a  town  by  the  name  of  Tsinghwa, 
where  I  was  met  by  a  guard  of  honour. 

The  railway  had  altogether  carried  us  ninety- 
three  miles  from  Taokow,  but  it  will  easily  be 
understood  that  it  was  never  the  intention  to 
terminate  the  line  at  Tsinghwa,  but  to  build  it 
further  into  Shansi,  a  scheme  that  has  now  been 
frustrated  by  the  Machiavellian  machinations  of 
the  Chinese  Government. 

Forty  li  from  Tsinghwa,  is  the  town  of 
Hwaiking-fu.  We  hired  two  big  carts  to  take 
our  baggage,  magnificently  guarded  by  a  couple 
of  armed  soldiers,  given  us  as  an  escort  by  the 
commandant  of  the  railway-guard. 

Mr.  Fong  and  I  rode  in  two  bamboo  chairs, 
through  the  fertile  country,  where  wheat  and 
opium  grew  side  by  side.  It  was  once  more  an 
abnormally  hot  day  for  May,  and  a  half -closed 
sedan-chair  is  but  badly  ventilated. 

We  accordingly  suffered  from  heat,  thirst  and 


(Top)  My  military  Guard  of  Honour  at  Clung  Hua. 

( Bottom )  Typical  courtyard  of  native  inn,  with  the  “Knlanebra” 
and  a  warrior,  given  me  for  “protection.” 


FIRST  TASTE  OF  CARAVAN  TRAVEL  83 


dust  and  felt  rather  worn  out  when,  at  3  p.  m., 
we  arrived  at  Hwaiking-fu. 

Outside  the  city  walls  we  saw  four  or  five 
large,  fortress-like  brick-buildings,  and  on  pro¬ 
ceeding  thither  we  found  that  these  martial- 
looking  edifices  formed  the  Canadian  Presby¬ 
terian  Mission  station. 

I  was  kindly  received  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Menzies 
and  Mrs.  Menzies,  who  had  already  been  over 
twelve  years  in  China,  and  put  up  in  their  com¬ 
fortable  house  for  the  night.  As  it  was  Sunday, 
I  retired  immediately  after  tea,  in  order  not  to 
disturb  the  missionaries’  Sabbath,  and  in  order 
to  take  a  few  hours’  rest  after  the  heat  of  our 
afternoon  journey.  A  hospital  managed  by  Dr. 
Menzies,  assisted  by  Dr.  Scott,  is  attached  to  the 
mission,  and  gives  the  two  medical  men  plenty 
to  do. 

The  missionary  doctor  had  been  kind  enough 
to  engage  two  carts  for  me,  but  unfortunately 
the  price  proved  to  be  considerably  higher  than 
the  terms  Mr.  Fong  had  already  been  able  to 
obtain  in  the  city  proper. 

On  Monday  morning  we  started  on  our  two 
days’  trip  of  160  li  to  Honan-fu,  the  second 
town  in  importance  in  the  province  of  Honan, 
which  simply  means  “south  of  the  river” — the 
river  alluded  to  being  the  Yellow  River  or 
Hwang-ho. 


84  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 

It  is  a  most  trying  experience  to  travel  by 
native  cart  in  North  China.  They  are  heavily 
and  clumsily  constructed  and  possess  no  springs. 
Furthermore,  the  so-called  roads  are  in  a  very 
sadly  neglected  condition,  the  state  of  even  the 
most  important  highways  being  of  such  a  nature 
that  it  would  be  impossible  to  employ  any  other 
kind  of  vehicle  than  the  springless  torture- 
implement  named  a  Chinese  cart. 

If  Dante  had  ever  tried  to  ride  in  a  cart  in 
North  China — and  the  roads  were  better  when  he 
lived  than  now — I  have  little  doubt  that  he  would 
have  introduced  this  mode  of  travelling  as  a  form 
of  punishment  in  his  “Inferno,”  and  the  Fathers 
of  the  Holy  Inquisition  would  have  welcomed  an 
artificial  combination  of  Chinese  roads  and  carts 
as  a  worthy  addition  to  their  torture-chamber. 

The  luggage  was  divided  between  the  two 
carts.  Mr.  Fong  and  I  were  sitting  in  the  first, 
and  my  servant  and  two  new  soldiers  from  the 
magistrate’s  yamen  at  Hwaiking-fu  in  the 
second. 

After  several  hours  of  shaking  and  near  spill¬ 
ing,  we  arrived  at  Meng-hsien,  where,  for  the 
first  time  during  our  journey,  we  had  to  put  up 
at  a  Chinese  inn.  The  local  mandarin  sent  a 
minor  official  to  inspect  my  passport,  and  upon 
being  asked  how  the  magistrate  could  possibly 
know  that  we  had  arrived,  he  answered  that  they 


FIRST  TASTE  OF  CARAVAN  TRAVEL  85 


had  expected  us  for  some  time,  having  been  ad¬ 
vised  by  telegram  from  Viceroy  Yuan  Shi  Kai  at 
Tientsin. 

It  seemed  to  me  strange  that  that  high  official 
took  so  much  trouble  in  insuring  the  safety  of  a 
Danish  tramp-journalist;  but  later  on  it  proved 
correct,  that  the  viceroy  had  despatched  tele¬ 
grams  along  the  greater  part  of  our  intended 
route  after  our  departure  from  Tientsin  early 
in  May. 

The  assistant  magistrate  did  not  return  with 
my  passport  until  midnight,  which  allowed  me  a 
rest  of  only  four  hours  during  the  night.  I  con¬ 
sequently  promised  myself  never  again  to  part 
with  my  passport  for  a  moment,  but  to  be  more 
liberal,  even  extravagant,  with  my  Chinese  visit¬ 
ing  cards  which  would  have  to  suffice. 

As  soon  as  we  were  outside  the  city  the  fol¬ 
lowing  morning,  we  entered  a  region  of  Loess, 
that  much  talked  of  formation  which  still  puzzles 
the  geological  world  in  spite  of  Richthofen’s  and 
other  theories.  I  shall  later  return  to  this  inter¬ 
esting  question. 

At  noon,  after  several  hours’  ride  through  nar¬ 
row  defiles  and  ravines,  we  reached  the  enormous 
Hwang-ho,  “China’s  Sorrow”  and  inundator,  the 
Yellow  River. 

Our  two  carts  and  four  mules  were  taken  on 
board  one  of  the  huge  government  ferries,  and  a 


86  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


strong  northerly  wind  and  swift  current  took  us 
safely  to  the  southern  bank  in  less  than  twenty 
minutes.  The  mules  seemed  to  like  the  maritime 
experience,  for  they  were  very  unwilling  to  leave 
the  ferry,  and  consequently  gave  the  mafoos  a 
good  deal  of  trouble. 

We  paid  the  Kang- Yu  ferry-men  a  little 
money,  as  they  had  taken  us  over  in  a  special 
ferry  by  virtue  of  instructions  given  them  by  the 
Meng-hsien  magistrate  through  the  medium  of 
our  military  escort. 

In  the  afternoon  we  passed  several  beautiful 
Loess  perspectives.  The  weather  being  warm 
but  not  too  hot  as  on  the  preceding  days,  we  were 
able  to  enjoy  the  superb  scenery,  which  is  hardly 
adequately  describable  by  words,  although  a 
landscape-painter  of  talent  might  quickly  be¬ 
come  both  famed  and  wealthy  in  case  he  took  up 
interpreting  the  weird  formations  of  the  Loess. 

In  many  places  the  road  was  too  narrow  for 
two  vehicles  to  pass  one  another,  but  our  soldiers 
proved  very  effective  in  forcing  a  quick  passage. 
They  did  not  always  restrict  themselves  to  gentle 
means ;  and  it  often  happened  that  a  blow  or  kick 
in  the  stomach  of  some  obstructing  party  had  to 
be  applied  before  they  would  get  out  of  the  way 
by  forcing  the  animals  into  some  incredibly  small 
corner,  if  in  a  ravine,  or  into  the  surrounding 
fields  when  on  level  country. 


FIRST  TASTE  OF  CARAVAN  TRAVEL  87 


This  violence  on  the  part  of  the  soldiers  was 
greatly  against  my  desire — but  I  knew  that  in¬ 
terference  would  never  be  understood — at  best 
only  found  ridiculous. 

Darkness  came  upon  us  as  we  entered  the 
suburb  of  Honan-fu,  where  we  paid  our  cartmen 
the  balance  due  them.  We  put  up  at  the  cleanest 
native  inn  we  were  able  to  find.  It  was  very 
dirty. 

I  slept  like  a  stone  after  the  two  days’  caravan 
journey,  and  did  not  get  up  until  eight  o’clock. 
After  breakfast  I  called  at  the  Swedish  mission- 
station,  where  I  met  Pastor  Anderson,  who  wore 
Chinese  dress  and  a  pigtail. 

In  the  evening  I  had  dinner  at  the  mission  with 
Mr.  Anderson  and  Dr.  Beinhoff,  who  both  lived 
a  simple  life  in  hard  work.  The  mission  field  be¬ 
longing  to  Honan-fu  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the 
worst  in  China,  and  the  Swedes  were  the  first  who 
have  been  able — about  one  year  and  a  half  ago — 
to  establish  a  permanent  mission  in  this  pro¬ 
nouncedly  anti-foreign  city.  The  converts  at 
Honan-fu  numbered  but  sixteen,  in  spite  of 
superhuman  zeal  on  the  part  of  the  missionaries. 

Originally  it  was  not  my  intention  to  stop  over 
at  Honan-fu,  but  unfortunately  it  proved  very 
difficult  to  get  together  a  small  caravan,  as  a  big 
military  transport  to  Ili  had  temporarily  swept 
the  city  clean  of  carts  and  animals. 


88  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


The  province  of  Honan  is  the  Chinese  Eldo¬ 
rado  for  robbers,  thugs,  desperadoes,  brigands, 
banditti,  and  highwaymen. 

In  the  wintertime  when  food  is  scarce  and  the 
temperature  low,  murders  and  robberies  are  daily 
perpetrated  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of 
Honan-fu,  especially  in  the  mountainous  regions 
towards  the  south. 

On  the  same  evening  we  arrived,  a  peaceful 
wayfarer  had  his  throat  cut  outside  the  west-gate, 
and  a  short  time  before  the  prefect’s  own  secre¬ 
tary  had  been  attacked  in  full  daylight  on  the 
highway  from  the  provincial  capital,  Kaifeng-fu, 
east  of  Honan  city.  The  latter  exploit  cost  the 
robber  organization  some  ten  captives,  who  were 
all  executed  on  the  spot. 


IV 

ON  THE  ROAD  TO  SHENSI 


MR.  FONG,  as  once  before,  had  luck  where 
the  mission  failed,  and  succeeded  in  ob¬ 
taining  two  covered,  springless  carts  for 
himself,  my  servant  and  the  luggage,  while  he 
got  hold  of  a  mule  for  me,  a  pony  not  being 
procurable. 

Our  little  caravan,  when  we  left  the  next  morn¬ 
ing,  passing  out  through  the  west-gate,  thus  con¬ 
sisted  of  five  mules,  two  carts,  three  mule-drivers, 
two  armed  soldiers,  my  servant  Masi,  Mr.  Fong, 
and  myself. 

I  did  not  envy  Mr.  Fong,  who  had  a  cart- trip 
of  over  250  miles  before  him;  but  on  the  other 
hand  I  must  say  that,  even  if  my  mule  were  con¬ 
siderably  better  than  a  cart  for  travelling  pur¬ 
poses,  I  by  no  means  experienced  anything  akin 
to  comfort,  for  my  animal  had  a  very  strange 
character,  and  I  truly  wondered  whether  it  was 
in  reality  a  mule  at  all. 

Some  of  the  great  explorers  of  Central  Asia, 
Prejevalsky  and  Sven  Hedin,  speak  of  wild 
asses,  the  latter,  I  believe,  calling  the  animal  a 
“kulan.”  Remembering  the  description  of  the 


89 


90  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


kulan,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  my  riding- 
mule,  as  far  as  its  looks  went,  must  be  related  to 
that  animal  through  intimate  ties,  while  its  pe¬ 
culiar  obstinacy  of  mind  and  dislike  of  the  rider 
pointed  to  a  relationship  with  the  zebra. 

Therefore,  I  decided  to  create  a  new  zoological 
name,  and  I  called  my  Hosinante  a  “kulanebra,” 

My  heart  swells  with  pride  when  I  think  of  this 
new  addition  to  zoologic  terminology,  which  I 
trust  may  graciously  be  accepted  by  Sir  Ray 
Lankester  and  other  authorities. 

And  I  am  equally  proud  when  I  remember, 
that  none  of  the  kulanebra’ s  daily  vicious  at¬ 
tempts  on  my  “balance”  succeeded — thanks  to 
constant  vigilance  on  my  part  and  perpetual 
though  mild  application  of  the  distracting  whip 
from  Russia. 

The  worst  thing  about  the  kulanebra,  however, 
was  that,  despite  assurance  from  the  head  mafoo, 
it  had  obviously  never  been  used  for  riding  pur¬ 
poses  before.  This  necessitated  the  continued 
presence  of  a  mafoo,  and  as  the  proper  mafoo  ran 
back  to  Honan-fu  on  the  first  evening,  saying 
that  he  forgot  to  bring  his  winter  clothes  for  the 
“cool”  nights,  I  took  the  liberty  of  using  one  of 
His  Imperial  Majesty’s  soldiers  in  said  humble 
capacity. 

From  the  very  first  moment,  when  the 
Tsinghwa  officials  gave  us  a  military  escort  of 


ON  THE  ROAD  TO  SHENSI 


91 


two  riflemen,  I  had  objected  to  the  idea,  but 
in  vain. 

Personally,  I  do  not  believe  that  the  mandarins 
on  our  way  took  the  slightest  individual  interest 
in  the  safety  of  my  person  or  property;  but  to 
send  soldiers  along  with  me  was  always  a  pre¬ 
caution,  vitally  concerning  their  own  peace  of 
mind  in  case  I  should  get  into  serious  trouble  or 
even  be  killed  on  the  way.  It  should,  further¬ 
more,  not  be  overlooked  that  the  soldiers  were 
always  able  to  furnish  an  exact  account  of  what 
I  had  been  doing  during  the  day — in  other  words, 
they  did  very  well  as  spies. 

Every  evening,  when  we  arrived  at  the  desti¬ 
nation  of  our  day’s  travel,  usually  a  hsien,  or 
district  city,  we  would  have  to  change  our  sol¬ 
diers;  and  we  thus  changed  our  escort  over  a 
dozen  times  on  the  road  from  Tsinghwa  to 
Sian-fu.  As  to  the  worthy  soldiers  themselves, 
they  appeared  increasingly  poorly  uniformed, 
shod  and  armed  as  we  proceeded  west,  excepting, 
however,  our  double  escort  of  four  soldiers  from 
the  important  city  of  Tungkwan. 

While  Yuan  Shi  Kai’s  railway  troops  were 
armed  with  modern  breech-loading  rifles,  we  ar¬ 
rived  in  Sian  with  soldiers  who  carried  no  arms 
at  all.  En  route ■,  we  observed  the  receding  stages 
of  muzzle-loaders  from  the  early  sixties,  iron 
swords  in  leather-sheaths,  as  used  in  the  Boxer 


92  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


and  Taiping  rebellions,  and  round,  black-painted 
sticks  that  could  hardly  kill  a  puppy.  There  is 
something  distressing  in  such  a  state  of  things  in 
one  of  the  largest  empires  of  the  world,  but,  of 
course,  it  is  no  use  crying.  The  necessary  re¬ 
forms  are  sure  to  come  here  as  elsewhere,  if  not 
before,  then  when  the  railway  has  been  extended 
along  the  banks  of  the  Hwang-ho  and  the  Wei 
into  Shensi. 

One  day,  one  of  our  soldiers  saved  me  from 
what  certainly  looked  like  a  very  serious  accident. 

We  passed  through  the  dark  and  narrow  thor¬ 
oughfare  of  some  small  village  in  the  afternoon. 
Due  to  the  fact  that  the  street  was  full  of  ox¬ 
carts,  which  made  a  quick  passage  impossible,  I 
had  induced  my  kulanebra  to  walk  on  the  stony 
“sidewalk,”  which  was  elevated  some  eleven  feet 
over  the  deep -cut  main-road. 

My  soldier,  a  tall,  poorly  clad,  but  good- 
looking  young  chap,  was  walking  a  little  distance 
ahead,  the  sidewalk  being  only  some  three  feet 
wide  on  this  particular  spot.  Suddenly  he 
turned  and  ran  towards  me,  catching  hold  of  my 
mule  by  the  headgear,  and  in  the  same  moment  I 
observed  a  runaway  pony  coming  towards  us  at 
a  terrific  speed,  swaying  to  and  fro  as  it  galloped 
along  the  narrow,  elevated  sidewalk. 

A  few  seconds  more,  and  the  white  runaway, 
which  was  mad  with  pain  or  fear,  had  plunged 


ON  THE  ROAD  TO  SHENSI 


93 


its  head  into  my  left  knee  with  such  force  that 
the  hind  feet  of  my  mule  slid  over  the  slippery 
stone  edge  of  the  sidewalk — I,  myself,  having 
had  no  time  at  all  to  dismount.  Had  the  mule 
fallen  down  the  half-score  of  feet  I  should  un¬ 
doubtedly  have  had  my  back  or  neck  broken,  and 
credit  is  solely  due  to  the  energetic  pulling  of  the 
courageous  Chinese  soldier  that  no  accident,  ex¬ 
cept  a  bruised  knee,  befell  me. 

The  white  pony,  after  the  collision,  half  fell, 
half  jmnped  down  into  the  main  road,  and 
having  been  inspired  by  a  new  direction  of 
thought  after  the  fall,  turned  round,  mounted  the 
opposite  sidewalk,  jumped  over  three  small 
naked  children  playing  in  the  sand,  and  eventu¬ 
ally  disappeared  in  a  dust-cloud  outside  the 
village. 

It  can  easily  be  understood  that  I  paid  the 
soldier,  who  had  indeed  acted  as  a  true  “body¬ 
guard,”  a  handsome  gratuity  when  he  left  us, 
and  he  insisted  on  “kowtowing”  in  the  dust  sev¬ 
eral  times  before  leaving  my  company. 

Our  two  carts  were  very  strong  vehicles,  cov¬ 
ered  with  semi-circular  wood-frames  which,  with 
their  outside  cover  of  faded  blue  cotton,  were 
intended  to  keep  out  sun  and  rain.  Against  the 
terrible  dust  in  the  Loess  plateaux  the  covers  are, 
however,  quite  useless.  It  would  be  altogether 
impossible  to  construct  anything  “dustproof”  in 


94  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


North  China.  Ask  the  diplomats  who  have  to 
keep  their  expensive,  gold-embroidered  uniforms 
in  Peking! 

The  mafoos  showed  themselves  to  be  very  un¬ 
obliging,  intriguing  fellows.  Although  I  had 
paid  the  customary  substantial  sum  in  advance — 
the  total  price  for  the  whole  caravan  being  fifty- 
six  taels,  or  about  forty  dollars  gold,  from 
Honan-fu  to  Sian-fu,  on  account  of  the  harvest, 
which  always  raises  the  price  of  carts — they  in¬ 
variably  came  every  other  night  and  desired  to 
borrow  money  for  buying  “horse-chow”  or  fod¬ 
der.  I  resolutely  refused  these  unreasonable 
demands  and  at  last  threatened  to  deduct  one 
tael  every  time  I  was  bothered  about  advances. 
That  threat  stopped  the  practice! 

The  four  cart-mules  were  not  bad,  except  one. 
This  poor  animal  had  the  skin  worn  off  in  several 
places  by  the  stiff  harness.  Three  days  before 
our  arrival  in  Sian-fu,  this  mule  had  a  violent 
attack  of  sunstroke. 

An  old  Chinese  “vet”  was  sent  for,  and  the 
treatment  of  this  excellent  man,  who  seemed  to 
be  well  up  in  sunstrokial  veterinary  surgery, 
cured  the  animal.  He  poured  cool  water  into  the 
ears  of  the  stricken  beast  and  pierced  its  nose, 
eye-sockets  and  other  soft  accessible  parts  with 
red-hot,  four-inch  nails.  This  made  the  patient 
dance  as  perhaps  never  before.  The  doctor  got 


ON  THE  ROAD  TO  SHENSI 


95 


his  fee  of  a  couple  of  dimes,  and  the  animal 
worked  comparatively  well  for  the  rest  of  the 
way.  Antiseptics  had,  of  course,  not  been  used, 
and  the  eyes  of  the  not  very  attractive  animal 
were  flowing  with  matter. 

At  nightfall,  when  we  arrived  at  the  inns  which 
were  to  shelter  us  for  the  night,  the  five  animals 
had  a  charming  habit  of  rolling  themselves  in  the 
inch-deep  dust  of  the  court-yard;  this  proved 
especially  beneficial  to  us  when  the  wind  bore 
the  dust  towards  our  already  sufficiently  filthy 
rooms.  The  animals  took  the  dust-bath  as  soon 
as  they  were  relieved  of  the  harness  in  order  to 
soothe  the  pain  of  insect-bites  received  during  the 
day.  Perhaps  they  also  cooled  off  unpleasant 
memories  of  the  everlastingly  applied  whip. 

The  dozen  or  more  Chinese  inns  we  frequented 
during  the  westward  journey  were  all  built  alike. 

Facing  the  street  is  a  “restaurant,”  the  food 
offered  in  these  regions  being  very  poor  and 
monotonous,  always  consisting  of  wheat  in  some 
shape,  eggs,  weak  tea,  thin  vegetable  soup  and, 
practically  never,  rice.  Next  to  the  open  res¬ 
taurant  we  find  a  large  gate  with  cheap  prints  of 
the  God  of  Protection  pasted  on  the  doors  in 
multi-coloured  display. 

Inside  is  found  a  large  square  court-yard,  part 
of  which  is  always  covered  with  a  wooden  roof  for 
protecting  the  carts,  not  the  animals,  against  the 


96  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


rain,  when  that  rare  visitor  arrives  in  the  autumn. 

In  the  furthest  end  of  the  court-yard  are  the 
entrances  to  the  “state-suite”  of  rooms.  These 
usually  consist  of  two  or  three  rooms  with  a  table 
and  a  few  suspicious-looking  chairs  or  benches, 
which  seem  to  have  been  constructed  so  as  to 
force,  through  their  lack  of  comfort,  the  traveller 
to  go  to  bed  on  his  “kang”  as  early  as  possible. 

The  “kang”  is  the  bedstead  of  northern  China, 
and  is  not  found  in  the  south.  It  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  houses  in  N orth  China  are  built  of 
mud,  intermixed  with  straw,  and  the  inns  form 
no  exception.  Even  large  bricks  for  city  walls 
are  made  of  mud.  The  kang  is  simply  a  solid 
bedstead,  some  seven  feet  long,  about  three  feet 
high,  and  four  feet  wide,  or  even  larger,  built  of 
mud.  A  foot  or  so  from  the  ground  we  find  one 
or  two  deep,  horizontally  excavated  holes,  which 
in  the  cold  winter  months  are  filled  with  fuel  in 
the  shape  of  dried  camel,  donkey  or  mule  manure. 

The  kang  is  thus  known  as  the  “hot  bedstead,” 
and  I  thank  Providence  that  it  has  not  yet  been 
my  lot  to  sleep  on  a  heated  kang,  which  I  fancy 
must  be  one  of  the  most  effective  creators  of 
rheumatism  ever  invented. 

Mr.  Fong,  who  had  brought  no  mosquito-net, 
suffered  greatly  from  the  iniquitous  vermin  in 
these  inns,  not  a  single  one  being  found  so  much 
as  tolerably  clean;  and  even  I,  who  had  the  ad- 


ON  THE  ROAD  TO  SHENSI 


97 


vantage  of  a  new  mosquito-net,  was  very  badly 
treated  all  over  the  body,  and  even  in  the  face,  by 
these  indefatigable  night-visitors.  I  tried  various 
kinds  of  disinfectants  and  powder,  but  they  were 
of  no  earthly  use,  and  eventually  I  had  to  put  up 
with  the  pest. 

Incidentally,  we  did  not  live  like  princes  on 
the  way. 

When  we  arrived  at  our  overnight  place,  we 
were  always  ravenously  hungry;  but  our  dinner, 
during  eleven  days,  consisted,  with  one  single  ex¬ 
ception,  only  of  scrambled  or  fried  eggs,  Chinese 
coarse  wheat  bread,  and  tea.  Our  breakfast  in¬ 
variably  consisted  of  three  boiled  eggs,  cocoa,  or 
beef-tea,  and  the  same  bread;  and  our  wayside 
midday-meal  of  two  hard-boiled  eggs  and  cold 
tea  without  sugar  or  milk. 

I  do  not  believe  for  a  minute  that  this  was  a 
healthful  diet,  but  as  we  could  get  no  decent 
Chinese  food,  which  by  the  way,  I  highly  treas¬ 
ure,  and  as  I,  in  order  to  reduce  the  bulk  of  our 
luggage,  had  brought  but  very  few  conserves,  we 
had  to  resort  to  eggs,  which  are  at  least  clean  and 
easy  to  prepare.  We  only  had  one  change  on  the 
way  in  the  form  of  a  boiled  chicken,  which  was 
prepared  on  an  evening  when  we  “got  in”  at  five 
p.  m.  instead  of  the  usual  seven  or  seven-thirty 
o’clock.  Fortunately,  I  did  not  feel  any  worse 
after  the  ardently  pursued  egg-cure. 


98  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


The  Chinese  inn-keepers,  as  a  rule,  are  eld¬ 
erly,  obliging  men,  who  charge  very  little  for 
the  dirty  rooms  they  let.  On  the  average  we 
paid  from  twelve  to  twenty-five  cents  gold  per 
night  for  the  “state-suite”  and,  when  it  hap¬ 
pened  that  this  had  already  been  taken  by  trav¬ 
elling  mandarins,  and  we  accordingly  had  to 
content  ourselves — it  fortunately  only  happened 
twice — with  the  small  prison-like  side-cells,  we 
paid  still  less. 

For  boiling  water,  the  water  usually  being 
drawn  from  a  deep  well,  we  had  to  pay  a  few 
copper-cash  extra,  and  the  mafoo  furthermore, 
had  his  bill  to  settle  with  the  inn-proprietor  for 
mule-fodder.  Still,  I  do  not  believe  that  the 
total  bill  ever  reached  400  large  copper-cash,  or 
half  a  dollar  Mexican,  a  night,  excluding  the 
fodder. 

Only  once  or  twice  did  we  meet  with  incivility 
on  the  part  of  an  inn-keeper. 

The  first  evening  after  our  departure  from 
Honan-fu,  we  found  that  all  the  inns  at  the  town 
of  Sinan-hsien  were  more  or  less  occupied,  and 
we  were  unable  to  find  any  habitable  room.  I  at 
once  sent  a  message  to  the  magistrate  with  the 
request  that  he  would  kindly  see  that  we  were 
accommodated  in  some  way  or  other  as  soon  as 
possible.  This  official  was  not  only  kind  enough 
to  have  rooms  prepared  for  us  in  an  inn  in  the 


ON  THE  ROAD  TO  SHENSI 


99 


suburb,  but  he  himself  came  in  his  sedan-chair  to 
see  that  we  were  comfortable. 

The  situation  for  the  mandarin  was  not  so  very 
easy,  for  it  was  a  fact  that  the  vanguard  of  the 
military  transport  to  Hi  had  ordered  rooms  and 
fodder  all  along  the  main-road.  Still,  what  made 
me  angry  was  that  the  inn-keeper  had  not  at  all 
given  the  true  reason  for  his  inability  to  receive 
us,  but  had  informed  Mr.  Fong  that  he  was  not 
willing  to  receive  any  foreigners  as  they  “always 
wanted  everything  their  own  way.” 

It  would  be  of  interest  to  know  how  many  for¬ 
eigners  the  said  inn-keeper,  outside  missionary 
circles,  had  encountered  in  his  lifetime,  as  they 
are  somewhat  scarce  in  Honan. 

About  a  week  later  we  had  a  similar  case, 
which  was  amicably  settled  without  official 
interference. 

Once  during  the  journey  it  happened  that  a 
petty  officer  of  the  military  transport’s  advance 
commissariat  rode  up  in  front  of  the  quarters  I 
was  actually  occupying,  loudly  demanding  that 
I  give  up  my  room  to  the  military  mandarin  in 
command.  I  got  very  angry  indeed  at  this  piece 
of  tactless  incivility  on  the  part  of  a  Mr.  Nobody, 
but  when  Mr.  Fong  had  told  him  that  I  was 
(sic!)  a  travelling  high  official  from  Europe,  he 
disappeared  in  a  fit  of  polite  haste. 

We  daily  had  to  cross  a  number  of  small 


100  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


xivers,  tributaries  to  the  Hwang-ho.  They 
came  from  the  southern  mountains  and  were 
usually  easy  to  ford.  In  Honan  we  found  no 
bridges  across  the  rivulets,  but  in  the  once 
imperial  province  of  Shensi  stone-bridges  were 
frequent. 

Several  times  we  caught  glimpses  towards  the 
north  of  the  Yellow  River  with  its  dark-coloured, 
shallow  waters.  Little,  or  practically  no  naviga¬ 
tion  is  found  here,  the  only  boats  being  the  large 
ferries  or  scows,  and  a  few  heavy  flat-bottomed 
lighters  which  bring  soft  coal  from  near  Tung- 
kwan,  in  fact  from  as  far  up  the  Wei  River  as 
Sienyang,  the  “port”  of  Sian-fu. 

On  Wednesday,  May  29th,  we  passed  into  the 
province  of  Shensi  and  stayed  overnight  in  the 
western  part  of  the  important  town  of  Tung- 
kwan,  which  is  not  only  a  considerable  trade- 
centre,  being  the  corner-stone  of  the  three 
provinces  of  Shansi,  Shensi,  and  Honan,  but  also 
a  military  city  of  some  consideration.  The  great 
numbers  of  travellers  coming  and  going,  was  in¬ 
teresting  enough  to  watch,  but  made  the  inns  the 
most  dirty  and  vermin-infested  we  had  as  yet 
seen  and  experienced. 

Just  west  of  Tungkwan,  the  Wei  River, 
locally  called,  or  perhaps  rather  pronounced,  the 
Yii,  joins  the  broad  Hwang-ho,  which  here  bends 
eastward  from  the  north,  after  forming  the 


ON  THE  ROAD  TO  SHENSI 


101 


boundary  between  Shensi  and  Shansi  for  several 
hundred  miles. 

From  Tungkwan,  which  we  left  early  the  fol¬ 
lowing  morning,  we  still  had  at  least  ninety  miles 
to  Sian-fu. 

In  the  afternoon  we  stopped  for  a  few  hours 
at  the  village  of  Hwayinmiao,  situated  at  the 
foot  of  one  of  China’s  five  holy  mountains,  the 
Hwa  Shan.  A  very  large  and  beautiful  Taoist 
temple  has  been  built  here.  I  found  it  in  fairly 
good  repair,  the  scenery  from  the  upper  balcony 
of  the  tall  main-temple  being  very  attractive 
indeed. 

The  most  celebrated  of  the  Chinese  holy  moun¬ 
tains  is  probably  the  Tai  Shan  in  Shantung. 
When  at  Lintsing-chow,  on  the  Grand  Canal  in 
Shantung,  we  found  the  city  overcrowded  with 
pilgrims  from  far  and  near,  who  were  waiting  for 
the  yearly  descent  of  the  “Great  Goddess”  of  the 
Holy  Shan,  in  order  that  she  might  stay  one 
month  with  her  faithful  on  earth.  Enormous 
numbers  of  pilgrims  come  to  Tai  Shan  every 
spring  in  order  to  remain  on  a  good  footing 
with  the  superior  forces  reigning  from  the 
mountain-top.  There  is  another  holy  mountain 
south  of  Honan-fu,  one  in  Shansi,  and  a  fifth 
in  Honan. 

Taoism  was  founded  by  the  interesting  thinker 
Lao-tse,  who  is  said  to  have  been  born  in  Honan, 


102  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


604  b.  c.,  or  over  fifty  years  before  Confucius. 
It  has  also  been  said  that  Lao-tse  travelled  much 
and  even  visited  India,  Persia  and  J udea.  His 
one  short  work,  the  Tao-Teh-King,  or  Theology 
of  Reason  and  Virtue,  is  probably  influenced  by 
the  Persian  Bible  or  Zend-Avesta. 

One  may  safely  say  that  his  writings  are  very 
elastic  and  consequently  give  rise  to  many  differ¬ 
ent  interpretations.  Lao-tse  may  be  translated 
“old  boy/’  which  seems  a  somewhat  humorous 
name  for  the  founder  of  a  religion;  but  Lao-tse 
was  carried  by  his  mother  for  eighty  years  prior 
to  his  birth,  and  appears  to  have  been  born  an 
albino.  He  was  thus  from  the  outset  quite  an 
extraordinary  person. 

The  Taoist  priests,  who  are  rather  few  in  num¬ 
ber,  are  considered  the  professional  magicians  of 
the  empire. 

As  we  proceeded  further  into  the  compara¬ 
tively  prosperous  province  of  Shensi,  the  grow¬ 
ing  of  opium  greatly  increased.  It  is  somewhat 
difficult  to  grasp,  that  the  famous  and  highly 
welcome  anti-opium-growing-and-smoking  edict 
of  recent  date  has  had  so  very  little  influence. 
The  further  away  from  Peking,  the  more  opium! 
It  is  quite  a  well-known  fact  that  the  present 
Governor  Chao  of  Shensi  is  a  great  opium- 
smoker,  and  as  long  as  the  officials  do  not  re¬ 
frain  from  the  objectionable  and  degenerating 


ON  THE  ROAD  TO  SHENSI 


103 


habit,  there  is,  of  course,  very  little  hope  for  any 
general  improvement  amongst  the  people. 

If  nothing  happens,  it  may  safely  be  predicted 
that  Great  Britain’s  present  efforts  to  stop  the 
Indian  opium  export  to  China  will  prove  quite 
futile — so  far  as  the  practical,  not  the  moral,  side 
of  the  question  is  concerned — and  the  Chinese 
will  simply  futurely  smoke  the  native  instead  of 
the  imported  poison,  although  the  “upper  ten,” 
who  can  afford  it,  by  far  prefer  the  superior 
Indian  poppy. 

On  our  way  we  sometimes  passed  open  carts 
under  escort  of  soldiers,  containing  three  or  more 
prisoners  who  had  been  sentenced  to  lifelong 
banishment  to  Mongolia  or  Turkestan  for  more 
or  less  serious  crimes.  The  travelling  prisoners 
wore  chains  around  the  ankles,  but  were  gener¬ 
ally  well-treated. 

One  day,  at  a  wayside  inn,  I  had  the  pleasure 
of  taking  my  egg-and-tea  tiffin  in  the  distin¬ 
guished  company  of  one  murderer,  two  burg¬ 
lars,  and  their  two  soldier-guardians,  besides 
my  own  escort.  We  got  on  very  well  together, 
and  none  of  them  tried  to  abstract  my  watch  or 
pocket-handkerchief. 

I  photographed  the  three  excellent  law- 
transgressors  and  promised  them,  with  a  reser- 
vatio  mentalis,  to  forward  enlargements  in  gilt 
frames  to  Kashgaria,  which  joke  they  seemed 


104  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


to  find  most  fascinating.  Shame  or  remorse  is 
not  found  among  criminals  on  the  highroads 
of  China,  only  fear;  and  it  took  fully  fifteen 
minutes  to  explain  to  them  that  I  was  not 
going  to  shoot,  but  to  snapshoot  them,  with  my 
kodak. 

On  the  31st  we  only  covered  some  twenty 
miles,  due  to  the  overwhelming  heat,  and  in  the 
forenoon  on  the  first  of  June  we  arrived  at  the 
hsien-town  of  Weinan,  which  carries  the  distinc¬ 
tion  of  having  been  the  cradle  of  the  great  Mo¬ 
hammedan  rebellion  of  northwest  China,  which 
raged  in  Shensi,  Kansu  and  Szechuan  from  1860, 
or  even  earlier  according  to  some  records,  until 
October,  1875,  when  it  was  brought  to  an  end  at 
Suchow  in  farthest  Kansu. 

It  must  be  said  that  the  foreign-dressed  trav¬ 
eller  in  these  regions  is  a  rara  avis .  While 
numerous  missionaries  have  travelled  this  way 
without  attracting  much  notice,  thanks  to  their 
Chinese  dress,  the  strange  attire  and  unusual 
outfit  of  the  uncommon  foreign  explorer  insures 
for  him  the  unpleasant  experience  of  being  prac¬ 
tically  mobbed  every  hour  of  the  day. 

I  was  usually  half  an  hour  or  more  ahead  of 
the  caravan,  and  sometimes  separated  from  them 
for  many  hours,  because  in  most  cases  I  was  able 
to  use  high  mule-tracks  in  the  mountains  and 
Loess  regions  where  the  carts  were  not  able  to 


ON  THE  ROAD  TO  SHENSI 


105 


pass,  thus  obtaining  a  better  view  of  the  sur¬ 
rounding  country. 

It  therefore  often  happened  that  I  stopped 
alone  at  some  small  wayside  inn  over  a  cup  of 
boiling  water  or  so-called  tea,  to  wait  for  the 
carts,  but  before  five  minutes  had  passed  I  was 
invariably  surrounded  by  dozens  of  curious  peo¬ 
ple  of  all  ages,  who  scrutinized  me,  my  dress,  and 
especially  my  foreign  saddle,  which  is  quite 
different  from  the  Chinese  wooden  saddle  of 
mediaeval  pattern,  their  eyes  lustrous  with  irre¬ 
pressible  curiosity. 

In  the  meanwhile,  it  must  be  admitted  that  I 
noticed  no  manifestations  of  actual  unfriendli¬ 
ness,  let  alone  hostility,  although  I  was,  of  course, 
unable  fully  to  comprehend  the  innumerable  re¬ 
marks  concerning  myself  and  my  visit  that  would 
be  flying  about  when  I  was  the  centre  of  any 
gathering  of  the  curious  people  of  the  street. 

A  very  small  incidental  occurrence  may,  how¬ 
ever,  change  their  whole  attitude  in  less  than  two 
seconds,  and  the  curious  mob  becomes  a  pack  of 
crazy  wolves,  ravening  for  nothing  less  than  the 
life  of  the  “foreign  devil.” 

I  once  went  through  such  an  ordeal  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Chingkiang  on  the  Yang-tse, 
twenty  odd  years  ago,  when  the  mob  forced  me 
to  use  my  revolver  in  sheer  self-defence.  I  never 
found  out  whether  the  man  I  shot  and  hit,  died ; 


106  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


but  at  any  rate  I  desired  no  repetition  of  such  an 
occurrence.  For  this  reason,  I  very  often  waited 
for  the  caravan  at  some  solitary  spot  under  a 
tree,  to  the  great  grief  of  my  military  mentor, 
who  was  thus  deprived  of  his  tea  at  an  inn,  as 
well  as  of  his  self-imposed  position  as  village- 
exhibitor  of  my  European  self  and  kit. 

On  the  second  of  June,  which  was  Sunday, 
we  arrived  early  at  the  historic  city  of  Lintung, 
situated  at  the  foot  of  the  Li-shan,  or  Swift 
Horse  Mountains,  and  some  sixteen  miles  east 
of  Sian-fu. 

Lintung-hsien  is  a  very  old  town  and  was  used 
as  a  capital  by  the  only  two  emperors  of  the 
megalomaniacal  Tsin  dynasty. 

Emperor  Chi  Hwang  Ti  intended  to  begin  a 
new  era  and  to  found  a  modest  dynasty,  which 
should  last  only  ten  thousand  generations,  but 
although  he  was  the  promoter  arid  engineer-in¬ 
chief  of  that  gigantic  task,  the  Great  Wall  of 
China,  his  dynasty  only  lasted  some  forty  years, 
being  replaced  by  the  first  Han  dynasty  in 
206  b.  c. 

Chi  Hwang  Ti  had  a  large  and  beautiful 
burial-place  constructed  by  his  son,  who  only 
reigned  three  years,  having  been  unable  to  ac¬ 
complish  anything  beyond  the  paternal  tomb. 

Lintung  is  also  famous  for  its  hot  baths. 

The  thermal  spring,  which  is  some  102  degrees 


ON  THE  ROAD  TO  SHENSI 


107 


Fahrenheit,  and  slightly  sulphurous,  is  situated 
a  few  minutes’  walk  from  the  west-gate  of  the 
town,  and  the  several  basins,  small  temples,  pa¬ 
vilions,  gardens  and  stables  form  quite  a  consid¬ 
erable  establishment.  The  baths  were  in  use  over 
two  thousand  years  ago,  and  nothing  is  charged 
for  using  them — only  the  inevitable  “squeeze.” 

We  were  kindly  shown  all  over  this  ancient 
establishment,  which  is  maintained  and  managed 
by  the  provincial  government  and  which  contains 
attractive  apartments  even  for  emperors  and 
their  consorts.  The  gardens  are  beautifully  laid 
out  with  artificial  islets  in  small  granite  basins, 
stone  bridges  and  tea  pavilions,  and  are  in  better 
repair  than  many  a  temple  or  palace.  This  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  rich  merchants  and  resident 
officials  all  contribute  freely  to  the  funds  of  this 
old  health-centre. 

In  the  great,  sombre,  cool,  granite  cave,  which 
forms  the  superior  bath  for  the  gentry,  I  saw 
many  Chinese  gentlemen  take  their  morning-dip, 
while  outside,  in  the  public  bath,  old  and  young 
people  from  near  and  far  were  enjoying  a  morn¬ 
ing’s  fun  in  the  hot  water. 

It  was  originally  my  intention  to  spend  all 
Sunday  at  this  lovely  place,  but  unfortunately 
this  proved  quite  impossible,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  the  new  provincial  treasurer  of 
Shensi  had  long  before  engaged  the  whole  estab- 


108  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


lishment  for  that  very  day  in  order  to  give  a  large 
party  on  taking  over  his  seals  of  office. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  room  might  have  been 
found  for  us  by  the  magistrate,  but  I  thought  it 
hardly  polite  to  endeavour  to  stay,  when  the 
rooms,  or  most  of  them,  had  already  been  for¬ 
mally  engaged. 

After  the  termination  of  my  visit  to  the  baths, 
Mr.  Fong  and  I  had  a  troublesome  climb  half 
way  up  the  Li-shan  to  an  old  temple  called  Lao- 
man.  We  had  good  tea  and  Canton  brown  sugar 
with  the  priest,  as  we  were  burning  with  thirst 
after  the  steep  ascent  in  the  blazing  June  sun. 

The  old  man  told  us  that  it  was  four  years 
since  any  white  man  had  visited  him,  and  that  I 
was  but  the  second  white  man  he  had  ever  seen. 
I  have  reason  to  believe  that  my  predecessor  may 
have  been  a  German  lieutenant,  Herr  Erich  von 
Salzmann,  who  passed  this  way,  bound  for  Kash¬ 
gar  in  Turkestan,  some  four  years  and  a  half 
before  we  passed  through. 

Like  Lieutenant  von  Salzmann,  I  had  taken 
my  kodak  with  me,  but  unfortunately  the  air  was 
not  clear  enough  distinctly  to  discern  the  walls 
and  gate-towers  of  Sian-fu  towards  the  west, 
which  was,  of  course,  rather  a  disappointment, 
and  my  luck  was  thus  not  better  than  that  of  the 
German  officer. 

After  a  stop  of  some  three  hours  at  Lingtung, 


ON  THE  ROAD  TO  SHENSI 


109 


we  proceeded  on  our  way.  The  road  literally 
swarmed  with  mandarins  from  Sian-fu  in  vari¬ 
coloured,  cloth-covered  sedan-chairs,  in  carts,  and 
on  horseback — evidently  all  going  out  to  the  pro¬ 
vincial  treasurer’s  week-end  party. 

In  the  afternoon  we  crossed  the  long,  imposing 
stone  bridge  over  the  Ba  River,  and  in  the  even¬ 
ing,  after  a  day  of  slow  progress,  we  arrived  at 
Chilipu,  where  I  decided  to  stop  for  the  night  in 
order  to  be  able  to  make  my  longed-for  entry 
into  Sian-fu  in  the  early  morning. 

More  than  half  of  the  inhabitants  of  Chilipu 
live  in  caves  in  the  Loess,  which  here  forms  a 
long  wall,  some  sixty  feet  in  height.  The  inns 
were  terribly  poor  due  to  the  close  proximity  of 
the  provincial  capital,  very  few  travellers  stop¬ 
ping  over  at  Chilipu. 


V 

REGIONS  OF  THE  LOESS 


BEFORE  entering  the  great  city  of  Sian-fu, 
it  is  my  desire  to  say  a  word  or  two  about 
that  most  interesting  feature  of  North 
China,  which  is  now  universally  called  the  Loess. 

It  is  nothing  if  not  natural,  that  the  mighty 
formations  of  the  Loess  have  given  rise  to  various 
geological  theories,  the  continued  presentation  of 
which  partly  ceased  since  Richthofen’s  theory 
was  generally  acknowledged  by  geologists  all 
over  the  scientific  world,  geologists  who  have,  as 
a  rule,  never  seen  the  Loess  themselves. 

While  I  do  in  no  way  dispute  the  greatness  of 
the  late  Professor,  Baron  von  Richthofen,  whose 
works,  like  “China”  and  “Letters,”  will  always 
receive  the  warmest  admiration  and  acknowledg¬ 
ment,  it  is  a  strange  thing  to  note  how  very 
quickly  a  theory,  to  wit,  an  unproven  hypothesis, 
or  to  speak  plainly,  a  supposition,  a  presumption, 
a  guess,  is  always,  when  coming  from  an  author¬ 
ity,  welcomed  and  nursed  by  everybody  in  minor 
authority,  and  accordingly  generally  accepted  by 
students  and  the  unsuspecting  public. 

The  famous  American  octogenarian,  Profes- 


110 


REGIONS  OF  THE  LOESS 


111 


sor  Raphael  Pumpelly,  first  visited  the  Loess 
in  1863-65. 

Kingsmill  soon  afterwards  advanced  a  theory 
that  the  stratification  of  the  Loess  pointed  to  the 
fact  that  it  was  simply  a  fresh-water  deposit. 

That  theory  hardly  holds  good;  and  we  find 
Loess  deposits — rather  a  misguiding  name  of 
German  extraction — at  a  height  of  some  7,000 
feet  or  more,  an  altitude  that  was  hardly  reached 
even  by  the  great  inundation  under  Noah,  or 
by  the  corresponding  Chinese  flood — the  Deluge 
of  Yu. 

Richthofen  travelled  in  China  in  the  early  sev¬ 
enties  and,  like  Pumpelly,  studied  the  Loess  on 
the  spot.  Afterwards,  and  only  after  very  care¬ 
ful  studies  and  much  thinking,  he  published  his 
great  theory,  which  will,  to  say  the  least,  give 
everybody  who  is  interested  in  nature,  plenty  to 
think  of  and  a  good  deal  of  amazement. 

The  Loess  in  China  proper  alone  covers  an 
area  equal  to  half  that  of  the  German  Empire ;  it 
is  found  in  plenty  in  four  provinces;  it  gave  the 
yellow  colour  to  the  last  reigning  house  of  China, 
having  been  called  Hwang-tu  or  “yellow  earth”; 
it  has  proven  its  high  fertilizing  power  through 
thousands  of  years;  it  has  shaped  itself  through 
local  influences  into  weird,  immense  formations, 
its  cleavage  and  stratification  proving  particu¬ 
larly  remarkable ;  it  is  found  at  very  considerable 


112  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


altitudes,  as  well  as  on  level  with  the  highly- 
coloured  rivers  that  penetrate  it,  the  Hwang-Ho 
being  one  of  them;  and  it  has,  so  to  say,  baffled 
science  to  a  great  extent  up  to  the  present,  and 
will  doubtless  do  so  for  a  long  time  to  come — the 
work  of  eminent  geologists  notwithstanding. 

As  is  well  known,  to  the  north  of  the  provinces 
of  Shensi  and  Kansu,  we  find  the  Mongolian 
vastness  of  the  Gobi  and  Shamo  deserts — not 
Gobi  “or”  Shamo,  as  the  former  is  a  sandy,  the 
latter  a  stony,  desert — which  have  undoubtedly, 
ages  ago,  formed  the  bottom  of  some  ocean,  or 
extensive  salt  lake  or  lakes. 

Having  disposed  of  the  theories  that  the  Loess 
is  a  fresh-water  deposit,  or  due  to  the  work  of 
ice-age  glaciers,  Richthofen  goes  on  saying  that 
the  whole  of  the  Loess  formation  of  N orth  China 
is  simply  due  to  the  geolian  action  of  the  sand¬ 
storms  from  the  northwest,  which,  during  count¬ 
less  centuries,  blew  down  the  sand-dust  from  the 
northern  deserts,  and  in  a  capricious  moment  de¬ 
posited  this  dust  some  hundreds  of  miles  away 
from  its  homestead.  In  short,  a  kind  of  inge¬ 
nious  translation  scheme  on  the  part  of  Mother 
N  ature. 

If  a  learned  scientist  of  some  recognized  uni¬ 
versity  were  to  issue  a  great  volume  tomorrow, 
asserting  after  prolonged  visits  to  Sahara  and 
Rome,  that  St.  Peter’s  Cathedral  was  in  reality 


REGIONS  OF  THE  LOESS 


113 


not  a  structure  built  by  human  hands,  but  simply 
a  conglomeration  of  sand-particles  from  the 
Sahara  desert,  blown  up  as  far  as  Rome,  there  to 
create  that  great  edifice  as  it  now  stands,  basing 
his  assertion  on  the  excellence  of  Sahara’s  sand 
as  a  building  material,  and  the  feared  Sirocco  as 
a  carrier,  the  said  scientist  would  undoubtedly 
find  thousands  of  believers  and  admirers,  and  his 
book  would  sell  like  hot  cakes,  chiefly  owing  to 
the  fact  that  a  new  and  audacious  theory  had 
been  published  by  a  man  in  a  recognized  position, 
by  a  man  of  authority,  and  also  because  of  its 
absurd  originality  and  engaging  novelty. 

When  John  Butler  Bourke  amazed  the  world, 
in  1905,  with  the  message  that  he  had  been  able 
to  create  life  through  the  mediums  of  radium- 
salt  and  gelatine,  he  was  eagerly  believed  by 
millions;  and  the  newspapers  printed  flaming 
articles  telling  us  that  “God  Has  Been  Seen,” 
“Creation  By  Man  Achieved,”  and  many  other 
awe-inspiring  things.  In  an  article  written  for 
the  Potentia  Organization,  and  published  in 
London  on  September  4,  1905,  in  “The  Daily 
Chronicle,”  Professor  Sir  William  Ramsay  did 
not  waste  many  words  in  proving  the  exagger¬ 
ation  of  Bourke ’s  divine  disclosures. 

Possibly  we  are  not  in  danger  of  altogether 
missing  the  point,  when  saying  that  a  party  of 
highly-trained,  independent  modern  geologists 


114  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


and  zoologists,  if  sent  on  an  expedition,  say  from 
Transbaikalia,  via  Urga,  Lanchow,  Sian-fu,  east 
to  Honan-fu,  and  north  to  Taiyuan-fu  in  Shansi, 
thus  first  traversing  the  Mongolian  deserts,  and 
subsequently  all  the  important  Loess  regions  of 
the  Middle  Kingdom,  such  a  party  would  most 
likely  have  a  good  many  new  and  interesting 
things  to  say,  upon  their  return,  concerning  the 
formation  of  Loess. 

Conceivably  they  might  even  revolutionize  the 
present  ideas  of  the  Loess,  and  the  theory,  as 
such,  of  Baron  von  Richthofen  might  possibly 
cease  to  exist. 

One  of  the  chief -experiments  to  be  undertaken 
by  such  an  exploring  party — it  is  not  proposed 
that  any  single  man  should  be  entrusted  with  the 
task — would  be,  on  numerous  spots  in  the  deserts 
and  Loess  regions,  to  collect  a  great  number  of 
samples  of  sand  and  Loess,  taken  not  only  from 
the  surface,  but  also  from  various  depths. 

These  samples,  on  being  brought  to  Europe 
and  America,  hermetically  sealed,  would  natu¬ 
rally  have  to  undergo  a  microscopic  analysis, 
undertaken  by  men  of  great  skill,  in  the  chemical 
laboratories  of  various  universities,  a  process  that 
has,  so  far  as  I  am  able  to  ascertain,  already 
taken  place  to  a  limited  extent.  There  would, 
however,  be  no  good  reason  for  telling  the 
analysts  beforehand  what  the  different  sample- 


REGIONS  OF  THE  LOESS 


115 


boxes  contained,  as  the  main  object  would  natu¬ 
rally  be  to  let  the  scientific  investigators  testify 
as  to  the  inter-relation,  or  lack  of  same,  between, 
e.  g.,  the  Gobi  sand  and  the  China  Loess. 

Still,  we  feel  sure  that  even  if  such  a  series  of 
careful  examinations  should  prove  that  the  sand 
from  the  northern  deserts  and  the  Loess  have  no 
more  to  do  with  each  other  than  have  a  relict 
mountain  in  Norway  with  the  detritic  forma¬ 
tions  of  the  island  of  Bornholm  in  the  Baltic,  lots 
of  people  in  minor  authority  would  still  say  with 
Richthofen  that  Loess  is  desert-sand,  blown 
southeast  during  centuries  by  perpetual  north¬ 
west  winds,  and  recall  the  “terrible  sand-storms 
of  North  China,  when  the  air  is  filled  with  an 
impalpable  yellow  powder,  which  leaves  its  coat¬ 
ing  upon  everything,  and  often  extends,  in  a 
fog-like  cloud,  hundreds  of  miles  to  sea.” 

May  I  insert  here  that  it  appears  strange  that 
the  action  of  these  northwestern  dust-storms, 
which  are  accused  of  forming  the  Loess  plateaux, 
can  not  so  well  be  traced  beyond  the  eastern  limit 
of  the  Loess  regions,  no  Loess  to  speak  of  being 
found  in  the  provinces  of  Shantung,  Kiangsu  or 
Chekiang  on  the  coast,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  dust  which,  when  deposited  forms  the  Loess 
according  to  Richthofen,  can  be  observed  “hun¬ 
dreds  of  miles  at  sea.” 

It  is  somewhat  inconsiderate  on  the  part  of 


116  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


these  aforesaid  storms  to  deprive  the  poor,  often 
famine-stricken  coast-provinces  of  the  blessings 
of  fertilization  as  bestowed  by  the  Loess,  by 
blowing  the  golden  sand-dust  out  to  sea,  while 
showing  a  preference  for  the  western  provinces, 
especially  Honan,  Shensi,  Shansi,  Kansu. 

For  the  furtherance  of  the  establishment  of  a 
final  and  correct  Loess  theory,  and  owring  to  the 
incredulity  generally  exercised  by  a  few  sceptics 
toward  new  theories  that  are  not  absolutely 
bomb-proof,  it  will  likewise  be  necessary  for  the 
members  of  the  party  of  Loess  explorers  to 
gather  samples — for  instance  from  a  ballon 
captif — of  the  dust  blown  up  from  the  deserts 
during  one  of  those  most  disagreeable  storms, 
and  to  go  through  the  same  trying  performance 
when  nearing  the  Loess  proper,  and  also  after 
having  reached  same. 

It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  Richthofen 
and  other  theories  concerning  the  Loess  forma¬ 
tions  have  ever  been  generally  accepted  before 
such  simple  experiments,  as  on  the  lines  sug¬ 
gested  above,  have  been  carried  out. 

A  description  worthy  of  the  wonders  of  the 
Loess  formations,  as  indicated  before,  might 
come  from  a  painter’s  brush,  not  from  an 
author’s  pen. 

There  is  something  histrionically  unreal  about 
the  marvellous  picturesqueness  of  the  deep  ra- 


(Top)  Loess  stratification  with  terraces  showing  caves 
( Bottom )  Loess  panorama  in  Honan. 


118  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


cleft  and  crevice  amidst  the  cracking  Loess,  hun¬ 
dreds  of  feet  above  the  bottom  of  the  gorges, 
protected  only  by  a  low,  usually  broken  mud- 
wall  less  than  a  man’s  height,  gives  us  opportuni¬ 
ties,  ever  repeated  and  unparalleled,  to  admire 
the  sights  which  the  Loess  defiles,  sometimes  half 
a  mile  wide  and  running  in  a  straight  line  for 
miles,  open  up  to  our  wondering  eyes. 

And  where  isolated  Loess-columns  stand  duty 
as  sentries,  new  wonderful  perspectives  of  strati¬ 
fication,  looking  like  titanic  stair-cases  built  for 
the  conquest  of  Heaven,  amaze  us;  while  deep, 
deep  down,  and  far,  far  away,  we  catch  a  glimpse 
of  the  large,  winding  river — now  the  Hwang-ho, 
then  the  western  Wei. 

Finally  we  tear  ourselves  loose  from  the  won¬ 
drous  outlook  and  make  our  descent  into  the  deep 
valley,  along  the  stony,  steep  Loess-slide,  until 
we  reach  the  rivulet,  which  we  ford  under  yelling 
and  shouting;  and  again  we  patiently  start  a 
new  ascent  on  the  other  side,  leading  us  toward 
weirder  formations  and  new  sights  never  to  be 
forgotten. 

And  we  pass  through  villages,  the  majority  of 
whose  inhabitants  live  in  caves,  dug  in  the  Loess 
walls,  cool  during  summer,  cosy  during  winter, 
the  villagers  being  mostly  farmers,  who  take  ad¬ 
vantage  of  the  virtually  inexhaustible  fertility  of 
the  Loess  for  grain-growing,  procuring  harvests 


REGIONS  OF  THE  LOESS 


117 


vines,  misleading  mountainousness,  abrupt  hills, 
and  ferocious  wildness  of  these  yellowish  cre¬ 
ations,  which  remind  one  of  the  smugglers’  scene 
of  “ Carmen,”  and  of  everything  connected  with 
highway-robbers,  crimes  of  mountaineers  and 
gallant  self-defence  of  ages  gone  by. 

We  can  almost  imagine  hearing  the  trumpet- 
signal  of  the  government’s  caravan!  From  our 
high  stand  on  the  edge  of  the  ravine  which  has 
cut  its  way  a  hundred  feet  below  into  under¬ 
ground  semi-darkness  and  midday-dusk,  we  hear 
the  shouts  and  shots  of  the  soldierly,  pagoda- 
hatted,  sword  and  bow-and-arrow  armed  high¬ 
waymen,  who  fight  the  escort  of  the  transport 
with  usual  success — the  escort  itself  getting  a 
share  of  the  booty,  part  of  which  will  see  the  bot¬ 
tom  of  the  nearest  mandarin’s  money-chest. 

A  fine  and  noble  life,  the  chain  of  murders  and 
thefts  of  the  highway-robber,  who  is  decapitated, 
if  caught,  but  who  is  very,  very  seldom  caught. 
For  it  might  happen  that  the  capture  of  the 
rascals  would  prove  detrimental  to  the  financial 
interests  of  the  authorities  in  the  neighbourhood. 

We  work  our  way  to  the  top  of  the  plateau, 
and  we  obtain  a  peep  into  mighty  nature,  such 
as  Loess  formations  in  North  China  alone  can 
furnish. 

The  age-old  trading-road,  where  it  swings  and 
sways  and  balances  along  the  perilous  edge  of 


118  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


cleft  and  crevice  amidst  the  cracking  Loess,  hun¬ 
dreds  of  feet  above  the  bottom  of  the  gorges, 
protected  only  by  a  low,  usually  broken  mud- 
wall  less  than  a  man’s  height,  gives  us  opportuni¬ 
ties,  ever  repeated  and  unparalleled,  to  admire 
the  sights  which  the  Loess  defiles,  sometimes  half 
a  mile  wide  and  running  in  a  straight  line  for 
miles,  open  up  to  our  wondering  eyes. 

And  where  isolated  Loess-columns  stand  duty 
as  sentries,  new  wonderful  perspectives  of  strati¬ 
fication,  looking  like  titanic  stair-cases  built  for 
the  conquest  of  Heaven,  amaze  us;  while  deep, 
deep  down,  and  far,  far  away,  we  catch  a  glimpse 
of  the  large,  winding  river — now  the  Hwang-ho, 
then  the  western  Wei. 

Finally  we  tear  ourselves  loose  from  the  won¬ 
drous  outlook  and  make  our  descent  into  the  deep 
valley,  along  the  stony,  steep  Loess-slide,  until 
we  reach  the  rivulet,  which  we  ford  under  yelling 
and  shouting;  and  again  we  patiently  start  a 
new  ascent  on  the  other  side,  leading  us  toward 
weirder  formations  and  new  sights  never  to  be 
forgotten. 

And  we  pass  through  villages,  the  majority  of 
whose  inhabitants  live  in  caves,  dug  in  the  Loess 
walls,  cool  during  summer,  cosy  during  winter, 
the  villagers  being  mostly  farmers,  who  take  ad¬ 
vantage  of  the  virtually  inexhaustible  fertility  of 
the  Loess  for  grain-growing,  procuring  harvests 


REGIONS  OF  THE  LOESS 


119 


twice  yearly  that  yield  a  hundred-fold.  Millions 
of  Chinese  live  and  die  in  Loess-caves  like  ordi¬ 
nary  troglodytes  of  old. 

As  we  travel  along  we  shall  become  enveloped 
in  one  of  the  trying  dust-storms  of  these  regions, 
which  raise  the  Loess  into  the  air  and  make  man 
and  beast  equally  sick  and  unable  to  see  or  pro¬ 
ceed.  Ears,  mouth,  and  eyes,  and  even  the  pores 
of  the  skin,  are  filled  with  yellow  Loess-powder. 

But  when  the  storm  ceases,  new  beauties  will 
be  unveiled  by  the  returning  sun,  and  offer  con¬ 
solation  for  the  hours  of  suffering,  spent  in  a 
deserted  cave  by  the  wayside,  when  animals  and 
travellers  crouched  together  in  discomfort,  sub¬ 
dued  by  the  wrath  of  the  elements. 

Through  the  foregoing  remarks  on  Loess  we 
have  almost  reached  the  moment,  when  we  enter 
the  city  and  provincial  capital  of  Sian-fu,  a 
moment  we  have  been  looking  forward  to  during 
the  past  six  years. 

Yet,  we  cannot  enter  the  destination  of  our 
expedition  until  we  have, — in  an  unscientific  and 
modest  way — expressed  it  as  our  firm  conviction 
that  the  Loess  plateaux  in  China  are  as  local, 
that  is  locally  born,  locally  evolved,  locally 
bound,  and  locally  developed,  as  are  the  ranges 
of  Himalaya,  the  lake  of  Koko  Nor,  or — St. 
Peter’s  Cathedral. 

The  underlying  “ginger-stone,”  as  the  natives 


120  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


appropriately  call  the  Loess,  is,  to  our  mind, 
nothing  but  a  peculiar  form  of  sandstone  in  the 
transitional  stage  of  disintegration. 

The  Loess  presents  to  the  modern  geologist  a 
living  chapter  of  the  geological  history  of  our 
earth,  giving  him  an  exceptional  opportunity — 
hitherto  but  little  cultivated — to  study  the  with¬ 
ering  away  of  thousands  of  square  miles  of 
surface.  Just  as  he  studies  the  action  of  glaciers, 
past  and  present,  and  of  volcanoes,  and  earth¬ 
quakes,  and  a  dozen  other  natural  phenomena,  he 
should  pay  attention  to  the  Loess  in  North 
China,  for  there  is  honour  in  store  for  him  who 
solves  the  difficult  problem  of  its  origin  in  a 
proper  scientific  way,  without  employing  either 
too  drastic  or  too  easy-going  measures. 

We  are  very  well  aware  of  the  fact,  that  the 
acknowledged  Loess-theory  will  quickly  and  suc¬ 
cessfully  contest  a  statement,  as  the  above,  that 
the  underlying  Loess  is  but  a  peculiar  kind  of 
sandstone  in  the  ultimate  stage  of  disintegration ; 
but  this  not  being  the  opinion  of  a  geologist,  it  is 
necessary  to  make  room  for  all  our  reasons 
concerning  our  conviction,  which  is,  of  course, 
mainly  based  on  the  areal  extent,  or  rather  limi¬ 
tation,  of  the  formations;  their  strictly  local 
nature,  including  the  restricted  locality  of  the 
“terrible  dust-storms”  and  their  dust-productive 
power;  and,  above  all,  our  desire  to  break  the 


(Top)  Fertility,  cultivation,  and  wilderness  of  the  Loess. 
(Bottom)  Habitated  cave-dwellings  in  the  Loess. 


REGIONS  OF  THE  LOESS 


121 


thorny  flower  of  awakening  the  world  of  geolog¬ 
ical  science  from  its  present  Richthofen-slumber. 

And,  while  we  brush  off  the  last  particles  of 
Loess,  so  far  as  this  be  possible,  from  our  sun- 
helmet  and  khaki-suit,  we  approach  the  towering 
eastern  gate  of  the  old,  imperial  city  of  Sian-fu 
— unquestionably  one  of  the  most  interesting 
centres  of  the  world’s  ancient  history. 

On  the  broad  highway  between  Chilipu,  where 
we  had  stopped  overnight,  and  Sian-fu,  we  met 
several  detachments  of  cavalry.  The  horsemen, 
who  were  old-style  Manchu  soldiers — that  is, 
not  modernized  troops,  but  few  modern-drilled 
troops  being  found  in  Shensi  as  yet — were  well 
mounted  on  Kansu  and  Mongolian  ponies,  but 
their  arms  consisted  merely  of  lances  with  huge 
character-embroidered,  multi-coloured  banners 
attached,  and  some  rusty  old  muzzle-loaders, 
which  had,  perhaps,  been  through  the  Dano- 
Prussian  or  the  American  Civil  War. 

At  the  inner  gate  we  were  requested  to  leave 
our  names  with  the  soldiers  on  duty,  after  which 
mediaeval  procedure  we  continued  to  the  very 
centre  of  the  town  under  the  guidance  of  our 
mafoos,  who  found  us  a  very  good,  but  of  course 
dirty  and  ill-smelling  inn  near  the  governor’s 
yamen. 

We  paid  our  mule-men,  who  were,  as  was  to 
be  expected,  very  dissatisfied — as  all  Chinese  are 


122  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


— with  what  we  gave  them,  and  we  then  pro¬ 
ceeded  to  make  ourselves  as  comfortable  as  cir¬ 
cumstances  would  permit,  as  we  expected  to  stay 
for  some  time. 

One  of  my  first  actions  was  to  instruct  my 
servant  to  get  some  fowl  ready  in  order  that  the 
eternal  egg-diet  might  be  changed,  forgotten, 
and  buried  in  history. 

I  then  sent  Mr.  Fong  to  the  Chinese  Imperial 
Telegraph  Office  with  a  couple  of  messages,  and 
proceeded  myself  to  take  a  very  necessary  and 
very  hot  bath,  to  the  great  astonishment  and 
trouble  of  the  inn-people,  to  whom  such  a  con¬ 
sumption  of  hot  water,  which  is  otherwise  only 
used  for  brewing  tea,  was  entirely  unknown. 

The  bath,  a  shave  and  clean  clothes  after  a 
couple  of  weeks  on  mule-back,  were  indeed  celes¬ 
tial,  and  an  hour’s  subsequent  sleep  on  a  Chinese 
couch  changed  me  into  a  new,  if  not  better  being. 

When  Mr.  Fong  came  back,  he  was  the  bearer 
of  good  news. 

As  I  had  expected,  there  was  a  Roman  Cath¬ 
olic,  as  well  as  two  Protestant  mission-stations  in 
the  capital;  and  to  my  delight,  he  informed  me 
that  there  was  also  a  foreign  postmaster.  I  de¬ 
cided  to  call  on  this  official,  and,  accompanied  by 
Mr.  Fong,  went  to  the  Chinese  post-office,  where 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  Mr.  Ernest 
Schaumloeffel,  a  German,  who  in  spite  of  his  age 


REGIONS  OF  THE  LOESS 


123 


of  twenty-eight,  held  the  rank  in  the  Chinese 
Postal  Service  of  District  Postal  Inspector,  with 
a  working-field  of  two  provinces,  Shensi  and 
Kansu. 

I  was  well  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  postal 
service  in  China  had  been  progressing  favour¬ 
ably  for  years  under  the  auspices  of  Sir  Rob¬ 
ert  Hart’s  inspector-generalship,  but  I  had  no 
idea  that  foreigners  were  employed  so  far  in  the 
interior  as  Sian-fu. 

A  very  effective  system  of  mounted  carriers 
has  been  introduced  all  over  the  empire  and 
seems  to  work  very  satisfactorily.  It  is  easily 
understood  that  in  a  country  where  the  highways, 
especially  in  the  winter  months,  are  unsafe  from 
robbers  and  brigands,  with  whom  the  local 
authorities  are  unable  and  sometimes  unwilling 
to  cope,  mails  are  frequently  robbed  and  plun¬ 
dered,  but  this  evil  will  of  course  be  done  away 
with  in  due  time.  Although  the  postal  service 
does  not  pay  as  yet,  it  is  progressing  financially 
every  year,  and  the  day  may  not  be  very  far  off, 
when  China  will  be  able  to  join  the  Postal  Union 
and  be  in  a  position  to  derive  a  revenue  from 
this  service.* 

Mr.  Schaumloeffel  asked  where  I  was  staying, 
and  when  he  heard  that  we  had  selected  an  inn, 
he  informed  me  that  he  had  plenty  of  room  in  his 


*  This  has  now  happened. 


124  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


residence  and  would  be  very  glad  to  house  me 
and  my  two  followers  there. 

After  some  reluctance,  due  to  the  fact  that  I 
intended  to  stay  for  some  weeks,  I  gratefully 
accepted  the  hospitable  offer,  and  we  conse¬ 
quently  returned  together  to  the  inn,  packed 
once  more,  and  had  everything  removed  to 
Mr.  Schaumloeffel’s  residence.  The  innkeeper 
watched  the  manoeuvre  with  but  little  joy  and 
no  approval. 

Mr.  Schaumloeffel’s  home  formed  a  spacious 
collection  of  buildings,  which  had  formerly  been 
occupied  by  a  retired  mandarin.  There  were 
about  a  score  of  rooms,  of  which  the  present  ten¬ 
ant  had  furnished  two  in  semi-European  style 
for  his  personal  use.  I  was  allotted  a  large,  cool 
bedroom  with  a  huge,  carved,  Chinese  wooden 
bedstead;  and  both  Mr.  Fong  and  Masi  were 
amply  accommodated. 

It  was  indeed  a  royal  as  well  as  a  most  unex¬ 
pected  reception  we  got  in  the  ancient  capital  of 
Sian-fu,  which  means  “Western  Peace,”  and 
never  did  I  expect  to  live  in  such  comfort  and 
peace  so  far  in  the  interior,  where  I  had  pre¬ 
pared  myself  for  a  lengthy  stay  in  a  boisterous 
inn,  devoting  the  greater  part  of  the  day  to  end¬ 
less  quarrels  with  the  inn-people  concerning  my 
little  wants — bath-water,  for  instance. 

Unfortunately,  I  only  had  the  pleasure  of  Mr. 


Loftily  perched,  troglodytic  Loess  home  at  Chilipu  in  Shensi. 


128  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


the  meantime,  the  truth  of  the  report  is  not  alto¬ 
gether  incredible,  as  a  good  many  J apanese  are 
engaged  in  the  provincial  college  as  teachers.  I 
sometimes  met  one  or  two  of  them  in  the  streets  \ 
they  wore,  strangely  enough,  Chinese  dress  like 
the  foreign  missionaries  and  looked  uncommonly 
little  like  serious  professors  from  Dai  Nippon. 

During  my  stay  in  Sian-fu  I  also  had  the 
pleasure  to  come  into  contact  with  the  members 
of  the  Scandinavian  Alliance  Mission,  an  Ameri¬ 
can  enterprise,  the  secretary  of  which,  the  Rev¬ 
erend  Pastor  Hagquist,  showed  me  both  interest 
and  hospitality.  This  mission  works  hand  in 
hand  with  the  China  Inland  Mission.  The  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  third  sect  of  Christianity  represented, 
the  English  Baptists,  I  unfortunately  did  not 
meet  during  my  first  stay  in  Sian-fu. 


REGIONS  OF  THE  LOESS 


125 


Schaumloeffel’s  company  in  the  evenings,  for  his 
great  district  gave  him  so  much  work  to  attend 
to,  that  he  stayed  from  early  morning  till  late  at 
night  in  the  office  without  even  finding  time  to 
come  home  for  tiffin.  But  then,  of  course,  I  had 
my  own  work  to  do  and  could  easily  make 
time  fly. 

On  the  second  day,  Mr.  Schaumloeffel  took  me 
to  the  Catholic  Mission,  where  I  was  introduced 
to  Bishop  Goette,  Father  Gabriel,  Father  Hugh, 
and  several  Sisters.  I  was  very  kindly  received 
and  shown  over  the  large  establishment,  which 
includes  a  new  hospital,  various  schools,  and  a 
remarkable  cathedral.  The  bishop  hospitably 
invited  me  to  accompany  Mr.  Schaumloeffel  and 
Father  Gabriel  to  Tung  Yuan  Fang  on  the  fol¬ 
lowing  Friday  in  order  to  attend  the  annual 
festivities  in  connection  with  the  celebration  of 
the  name-day  of  the  Mother-provincial. 

On  Friday,  therefore,  we  set  out  early  in  the 
morning;  Father  Gabriel  in  an  antediluvian  but 
strong  dog-cart  of  his  own,  Mr.  Schaumloeffel  in 
his  sedan-chair — quite  an  elaborate  contrivance, 
carried  shoulder-high  by  four  coolies — and  I, 
myself,  on  the  latter’s  capricious  Kansu  pony, 
which  he  does  not  like  to  ride  himself  owing  to  its 
frequent  shying  and  strange  behaviour. 

The  chair,  meanwhile,  proved  too  slow,  and 
Mr.  Schaumloeffel  entered  the  missionary’s  little 


126  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


vehicle,  which  I  felt  sure  would  collapse  under 
the  weight  of  the  two  men.  Fortunately,  nothing 
untoward  happened. 

Our  strange  procession,  strange  to  native  eyes, 
was  headed  by  a  young  Chinese  student  with  an 
enormous  straw-hat  which  looked  like  a  stone- 
age  shield. 

We  crossed  the  Wei,  locally  called  Yli,  thirty- 
five  li  north  of  Sian-fu;  and,  after  having  crossed 
another  river,  where  we  cooled  and  drank  a  bottle 
of  German  Pilsen,  which  the  F rench  F ather  had 
brought,  we  speedily  reached  Tung  Yuan  Fang, 
some  twenty-five  miles  northeast  of  the  capital, 
where  the  Franciscans  maintain  a  large  educa¬ 
tional  institution. 

Father  Daniel,  the  director,  received  us  with 
great  cordiality,  and,  after  cleaning  up  a  bit,  we 
partook  of  an  excellent  meal,  prepared  by  the 
Sisters,  who  also  kindly  waited  on  us. 

In  the  afternoon  and  the  next  dav  we  were 
present  at  the  performance  given  by  the  children 
of  the  orphan  and  other  schools,  and  it  was  in¬ 
deed  wonderful  to  see  what  these  little  ones, 
many  of  whom  had  been  picked  up  in  the  streets, 
were  able  to  do  and  what  they  had  been  taught 
by  the  Sisters. 

One  of  the  strangest  or  perhaps  most  natural 
things  is  that  the  Chinese  child’s  ear  is  perfectly 
susceptible  to  European  music  and  it  needs 


REGIONS  OF  THE  LOESS 


127 


no  Professor  Friedenthal  to  verify  this  state¬ 
ment — any  missionary  will  tell  you.  The  boys 
and  girls  sang  the  foreign  hymns,  and  even 
French  songs,  just  as  European  children  would 
have  done  it,  with  clear,  melodious  soprano 
voices. 

In  fact,  the  bishop  told  me  that  the  Chinese 
child  was  quite  able  to  be  entirely  educated  as  a 
foreigner,  without  any  mental,  racial  signs  show¬ 
ing  in  the  least — a  statement  that  was  very  well 
borne  out  by  the  fact  that  the  boys  performed 
several  small  theatrical  pieces  in  French — their 
pronunciation  proving  irreproachable. 

After  two  days’  stay,  I  returned  to  Sian-fu  on 
Mr.  Schaumloeffel’s  interesting  pony,  while  he 
himself  went  to  Sanyuan,  an  important  trade 
centre  further  north,  in  order  to  inspect  the  post- 
office  and  make  propaganda  for  the  service 
among  the  bankers  of  that  town,  who  insisted 
upon  maintaining  their  own  postal  arrangements. 

On  the  way  back,  especially  between  the  capi¬ 
tal  and  the  Wei,  which  it  took  an  hour  and  a  half 
to  cross  this  time  owing  to  heavy  traffic  on  the 
main-road,  I  noticed  several  artificial  mounds. 

They  are  the  graves  of  emperors  ahd  princes 
of  the  Tang  and  other  dynasties,  and  it  is  whis¬ 
pered  that  several  Japanese  exploring  parties 
have  excavated  some  of  the  graves,  although  I 
have  never  heard  anything  about  the  results.  In 


130  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


the  northern  gate,  we  find  the  wells  that  supply 
the  whole  population  of  at  least  a  quarter  of  a 
million  with  drinking  water.  It  is  laboriously 
distributed  everywhere  by  coolies,  who  peddle 
the  water  from  wooden  buckets  on  wheelbar¬ 
rows.  There  are  wells  enough  in  the  city  proper, 
but  the  water  is  not  pure,  and  is  used  for  wash¬ 
ing  only. 

The  principal  streets,  which  run  almost 
straight  from  gate  to  gate,  divide  the  town  in 
four  natural  parts. 

The  northwestern  part  is  the  foreign  or  Mo¬ 
hammedan  quarter.  Here  we  find  the  emigrants 
from  the  over-populated  province  of  Szechuan, 
towards  the  southwest,  and  the  Mohammedan 
community  which  everywhere  holds  itself  apart 
from  the  Chinese.  The  Moslems  themselves  say 
that  they  originally  came  from  the  west,  brought 
in  as  bodyguard-soldiers  for  some  distant  em¬ 
peror.  This  sounds  true  enough;  they  are  cer¬ 
tainly  distinct  from  the  Chinese,  whom  they 
loathe,  and  even  today  they  are  mostly  mili¬ 
tary  men. 

I  found  many,  especially  in  and  around  the 
mosques,  who  had  distinctly  West- Asian  traits 
in  face  and  complexion.  Their  origin  in  China 
is  perhaps  not  unlike  that  of  the  old  Warings  at 
Constantinople,  or  the  popes’  Swiss  guard,  while 
their  history  is  fully  as  bloody  as  that  of  the 


{Top)  Towering  East  Gate  of 
( Bottom )  The  roofs  and 


Sian-fn,  capital  of  Shensi. 
Bell-Tower  of  Sian-fu. 


134  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


ated  in  this  part  of  the  city.  It  was  formerly 
occupied  by  the  Viceroy  of  the  Shen-Kan  prov¬ 
inces,  but  since  the  great  Mohammedan  rebel¬ 
lion,  this  official  has  resided  in  Lanchow-fu,  the 
capital  of  Kansu,  and  his  yamen  has  been  occu¬ 
pied  by  his  subordinate,  Shensi’s  governor,  His 
Excellency  Chao  Hung  Sheng. 

This  gentleman,  who  is  said  to  be  a  learned 
scholar,  is  unfortunately  a  confirmed  opium- 
smoker,  and  will  hardly  be  of  any  service  in  en¬ 
forcing  the  government’s  famous  opium-edict. 
It  is  a  tell-tale  sight  to  see  the  enormous  amount 
of  opium  grown  in  the  province  which  this  worthy 
man  has  been  selected  to  govern.  I  met  him 
twice  in  the  streets;  he  was  rushing  by  in  his 
green  sedan-chair,  an  old,  tired,  and  very  dissi¬ 
pated  man,  with  a  red  nose. 

The  outer  public  courtyards  of  the  governor’s 
yamen  may  be  termed  the  market-place  of  the 
town.  It  is  a  veritable  bazaar  and  a  busy  life 
may  be  watched  there.  Various  theatrical  shows, 
small  menageries,  dentists,  quack-doctors  with 
unmentionable  medicines  for  all  ailments,  ocu¬ 
lists,  occultists,  palmists,  fortune-tellers,  as¬ 
trologers,  fancy-goods  pedlars,  confectioners, 
corn-cutters,  “fiscal”  agents,  and  many,  many 
others  do  a  roaring  trade  here  as  long  as  the  sun’s 
light  permits. 

People  jostle  jollily  against  one  another  in  the 


THE  ANCIENT  CITY  OF  SIAN-FU 


131 


Huguenots  in  France.  In  spite  of  their  total 
submission  after  the  furious  rebellion  in  the 
sixties,  it  is  still  their  hope  to  attain  some  de¬ 
gree  of  autonomy,  and  to  form  an  imperium  in 
imperio. 

For  some  reason  or  other,  which  has  never 
been  properly  found  out,  the  Mohammedans  of 
Sian-fu  proper  took  no  part  in  the  great  rebel¬ 
lion,  and,  consequently,  neither  they  nor  the  city 
suffered,  while  Shensi  and  the  surrounding  coun¬ 
try,  for  hundreds  of  miles  in  all  directions,  was 
pillaged  and  plundered  unmercifully. 

Mr.  Schaumloeffel’s  residence  was  situated  in 
the  Mohammedan  section,  all  his  servants  being 
accordingly  adherents  of  Islam,  and  close  to  one 
of  the  oldest  mosques  in  China.  I  often  visited 
the  old  place  with  its  many  courtyards,  memorial 
slabs  with  Chinese  and  Arabic  characters,  and 
green-tiled  pavilions,  where  education  was  dis¬ 
seminated  by  the  mullahs  to  the  young  followers 
of  Mohammed. 

The  northeastern  part  of  the  city  is  the  Tatar 
or  Manchu  city,  which  is  encircled  by  its  own 
inner  wall.  Since  the  Manchus  conquered  the 
Chinese  Empire  in  a.  d.  1644,  it  has  been  the 
custom  of  the  alien  rulers  to  maintain  Tatar 
garrisons  in  all  larger  cities.  The  government- 
subsidized  Manchu  communities,  usually  consti¬ 
tute  a  haughty,  lazy,  good-for-nothing  lot,  and 


132  MY  NESTOR  IAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


their  part  of  the  city  is  quite  devoid  of  busi¬ 
ness  transactions  or  any  other  kind  of  activity 
whatsoever.  To  enter  the  Tatar  citv  from  the 
busy  Chinese  streets  is  like  entering  St.  Patrick’s 
Cathedral  from  Fifth  Avenue,  or  St.  Paul’s  from 
the  buzz  of  Ludgate  Hill. 

The  very  houses  seem  aimlessly  scattered 
about,  and  the  streets,  which  are  unpaved,  are 
kept  in  very  bad  repair.  Amidst  the  Manchu 
section  we  find,  enclosed  by  yet  another  wall,  a 
piece  of  land  of  many  acres,  where  the  palaces  of 
former  dynasties,  notably  the  Tang,  a.  d.  618- 
907,  used  to  stand.  Nothing  remains  above¬ 
ground  now  to  remind  one  of  the  splendour  of 
a  former  imperial  city,  and  this  site  of  land, 
which  is  now  chiefly  used  for  sheep  pasturage 
and  occasional  military  drill,  and  manoeuvres, 
will  do  very  well  some  time  in  the  future  as  a 
railway-depot,  a  small  foreign  settlement,  or  a 
race-course. 

Near  one  of  the  corners  of  this  prospective 
recreation-ground,  which  was  formerly  the  gay 
and  resplendent  centre  of  more  than  one  mighty 
court,  we  find  a  ten  feet  high  eerolite  with  the 
clear  impression  of  a  very  large  human  hand  and 
foot  on  it.  These  marks  are  said  to  have  been 
impressed  by  the  once  reigning  Empress  Wu 
Tse  Tien,  who  must  have  been  a  formidable  lady, 
judging  from  the  size  of  her  hand.  I  inquiringly 


THE  ANCIENT  CITY  OF  SIAN-FU 


133 


placed  my  own  hand  in  the  indentation  on  the 
stone ;  but  although  I  pursued  a  naval  career  for 
years,  my  horny  hand  could  cover  only  a  modest 
part  of  the  imperial  palm’s  impression. 

The  Empress  Wu  Tse  Tien  was  of  the 
Elizabeth-Catharina  type,  and  must  have  been  an 
extraordinarily  strong  woman.  Looking  apart 
from  the  Empress-Dowager  Tsz-Hsi,  who  was 
very  much  like  her  in  many  respects,  Wu  II ao  is 
the  only  woman-ruler  China  can  boast  of.  It  is 
true  that  she  was  a  usurper  and  murderess  on  an 
elaborate  scale,  but  we  must  not  overlook  the  fact 
that  she  reigned  more  than  1,200  years  ago,  when 
human  life  was  still  cheaper  than  now,  having 
become  empress  a.  d.  655. 

She  was  undoubtedly  the  first  Chinese  ruler  to 
prosecute  Christianity,  which  was  then  flourish¬ 
ing  in  Shensi  in  the  Nestorian  form;  and  it  may 
thus  truthfully  be  said  that  the  Chinese  contu¬ 
macious  disregard  of  the  teachings  of  Christ  is 
not  of  recent  date. 

In  the  southwestern  section  of  Sian-fu  we  find 
many  large  residences  that  look  impressive  and 
pleasant  to  the  rare  visitor  from  afar.  The 
yamen  of  the  Governor  of  Shensi,  with  whom  I 
exchanged  cards,  going  through  the  same  per¬ 
formance  with  the  other  high  officials  of  the  prov¬ 
ince,  the  treasurer,  the  judge,  the  taotai,  and, 
last  but  not  least,  the  Tatar  general,  is  also  situ- 


134  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


ated  in  this  part  of  the  city.  It  was  formerly 
occupied  by  the  Viceroy  of  the  Shen-Kan  prov¬ 
inces,  but  since  the  great  Mohammedan  rebel¬ 
lion,  this  official  has  resided  in  Lanchow-fu,  the 
capital  of  Kansu,  and  his  yamen  has  been  occu¬ 
pied  by  his  subordinate,  Shensi’s  governor,  His 
Excellency  Chao  Hung  Sheng. 

This  gentleman,  who  is  said  to  be  a  learned 
scholar,  is  unfortunately  a  confirmed  opium- 
smoker,  and  will  hardly  be  of  any  service  in  en¬ 
forcing  the  government’s  famous  opium-edict. 
It  is  a  tell-tale  sight  to  see  the  enormous  amount 
of  opium  grown  in  the  province  which  this  worthy 
man  has  been  selected  to  govern.  I  met  him 
twice  in  the  streets;  he  was  rushing  by  in  his 
green  sedan-chair,  an  old,  tired,  and  very  dissi¬ 
pated  man,  with  a  red  nose. 

The  outer  public  courtyards  of  the  governor’s 
yamen  may  be  termed  the  market-place  of  the 
town.  It  is  a  veritable  bazaar  and  a  busy  life 
may  be  watched  there.  V arious  theatrical  shows, 
small  menageries,  dentists,  quack-doctors  with 
unmentionable  medicines  for  all  ailments,  ocu¬ 
lists,  occultists,  palmists,  fortune-tellers,  as¬ 
trologers,  fancy-goods  pedlars,  confectioners, 
corn-cutters,  “fiscal”  agents,  and  many,  many 
others  do  a  roaring  trade  here  as  long  as  the  sun’s 
light  permits. 

People  jostle  jollily  against  one  another  in  the 


THE  ANCIENT  CITY  OF  SIAN-FU 


135 


crowd;  some  swear,  while  some  excuse  them¬ 
selves  ;  and  in  the  midst  of  this  noisy  mob,  which 
is  perhaps  similar  to  the  one  Jesus  drove  out  of 
the  J ewish  temple,  we  discover  a  couple  of  Chris¬ 
tian  native  missionaries  with  a  portable  organ, 
who  sing,  or  rather  shriek,  holy  hymns  to  the 
great  astonishment  of  some  and  the  marked 
amusement  of  others. 

Suddenly  the  crowd  is  dispersed  by  military, 
scarlet-coated  lictors,  making  room  for  some 
mandarin,  who  is  going  to  transact  business  with 
the  governor  in  the  yamen.  Sitting  in  his  sedan- 
chair  as  grave  as  an  image,  the  official  is  hustled 
by  with  his  retinue  of  riding  attendants  and 
shouting  coolies,  who  carry  his  crimson  umbrella 
of  authority  and  his  name  and  rank  painted  in 
gold  on  red  signboards. 

Still  the  crowd  continues  its  easy-going  life  in 
“bazaar-square,”  listening  to  the  story-tellers, 
looking  open-mouthed  at  the  Marionette  show, 
and  staring  rudely  at  the  psalm-singers. 

The  site  of  the  Imperial  Post  Office  has  wisely 
been  selected  on  this  much-frequented  and  cen¬ 
trally  located  square. 

The  southeastern  part  of  Sian-fu  also  contains 
many  fine  residences,  besides  shops  and  artisans’ 
workshops,  and  near  the  south  gate  we  find  the 
Confucian  Peilin — the  “Forest  of  Tablets”  or 
“Stone  Coppice” — which  is  a  superb  collection  of 


136  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


memorial  stones  with  inscriptions  of  different 
kinds.  The  hard  limestone  slabs,  which  are  all 
smooth  and  black  from  the  constant  taking  of 
paper-rubbings  of  their  inscriptions,  stand  in 
several  sheds  and  nearly  all  date  from  the  Han 
dynasty.  One  set  of  stones  is  inscribed  with  the 
whole  of  the  thirteen  classics,  which  naturally 
represents  an  enormous  amount  of  expert  chisel¬ 
ling,  and  on  others  we  will  find  well-traced  im¬ 
ages  of  men,  animals  and  plants. 

In  one  of  the  houses  a  stone-statue  of  Con¬ 
fucius,  in  a  sitting  position,  is  exhibited ;  this  does 
not  exactly  signify  that  this  building  is  a  temple 
dedicated  to  his  worship,  for  the  Confucian  tem¬ 
ples,  as  formerly  mentioned,  are  net  adorned 
with  images  or  idols.  I  rather  venture  to  think 
that  the  close  intimacy  of  Confucius  with  the 
classics  induced  the  creators  of  the  Peilin  to  put 
his  statue  there  as  a  mark  of  distinction  and 
reverence. 

It  has  been  mentioned  by  some  writer  that  one 
of  the  buildings  of  the  Peilin  is  always  kept 
locked,  as  it  contains  an  image  of  Confucius.  I 
was  not  able  to  find  any  locked  house  on  the 
grounds  and  consequently  believe  that  the  edifice, 
containing  Kong-fu-tze’s  image,  had  only  been 
temporarily  closed,  or  possibly  was  thrown  open 
after  the  above-mentioned  writer’s  unsuccessful 
visit. 


THE  ANCIENT  CITY  OF  SIAN-FU 


137 


The  oft-visited  “Stone  Coppice”  in  Peking  is 
of  a  later  date. 

Above  the  very  centre  of  the  city,  where  the 
two  principal  streets  cross  each  other,  a  bell- 
tower  is  situated.  Like  the  nearby  drum  tower, 
it  is  built  of  red-painted  wood,  and  a  very  fine 
view  of  the  city  and  the  surrounding  country, 
with  its  two  pagodas  toward  the  south  and  the 
imperial  graves  toward  the  north,  may  be  had 
from  its  balcony. 

I  do  not  believe  that  I  have  ever  seen,  in  any 
other  Chinese  city,  or  elsewhere  in  the  world, 
such  a  disgusting  army  of  beggars  as  the  one 
which  was  in  sad  evidence  everywhere  in  the 
streets  of  Sian-fu.  Winter  and  summer  they 
are  clad  in  practically  nothing  except  the 
millimeter-thick  layers  of  filth  on  their  vermin- 
bitten  bodies.  They  are  usually  bald,  owing 
to  disease,  and  their  black-yellow  bodies  are 
covered  with  horrible  dripping  sores.  They 
are  of  all  ages  and  constitute  a  clan  of  their 
own. 

For  hours  they  sit  outside  a  shop,  and  yell  and 
shout,  and  act  their  self-imposed  part  until  the 
weary  shopkeeper  throws  them  a  copper-cash, 
when  they  condescendingly  move  on  to  the  next 
shop,  where  they  will  weep  and  shriek,  and  stop 
the  traffic  and  trade,  and  spread  disease  till  the 
moment  comes  when  the  exasperated  shopman 


138  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


thinks  it  wise  to  get  rid  of  them  by  submitting  to 
their  blackmail. 

I  spoke  to  a  missionary  about  the  marked  evil, 
the  existence  of  which  he  fully  acknowledged,  but 
“the  beggars  do  not  desire  to  reform  or  work, 
even  if  we  help  them  along;  and  we  can  do 
nothing,”  was  the  reply,  not  very  merciful,  but 
probably  quite  true.  It  is  hard  to  fathom  that 
the  citizens  do  not  induce  or  force  the  magistrates 
to  expel  this  army  of  hundreds  of  voluntary  un¬ 
employed,  who  entail  considerable  expense,  not 
to  speak  of  the  constant  spread  of  contagious 
diseases. 

During  the  Boxer  troubles  in  1900,  the  re¬ 
doubtable  empress-dowager  found  it  wisest  for 
her  personal  safety  to  go  into  self-inflicted  exile, 
and  she,  the  emperor,  and  their  court  arrived  as 
fugitives  at  Sian-fu  early  in  November,  1900,  in 
order  to  rule  China  from  its  ancient  capital,  while 
Count  von  Waldersee  and  his  international  army 
desecrated  the  imperial  and  forbidden  cities  at 
Peking. 

The  journey  through  Shansi  and  Shensi  had 
been  a  long  and  troublesome  one  for  an  old  lady 
in  her  sixties,  and  the  governor  of  the  province, 
the  later  Viceroy  Tuan  Fang  of  Nanking,  had 
evacuated  his  yamen  and  prepared  it  for  his  im¬ 
perial  visitors.  Meanwhile  the  court  decided  to 
take  up  its  abode  in  the  yamen,  which  had  for- 


THE  ANCIENT  CITY  OF  SIAN-FU 


139 


merly  been  occupied  by  the  Governor  of  Shensi, 
previous  to  the  removal  of  the  viceroy’s  seat  to 
Lanchow.  This  old  yamen,  called  the  Pe-Yuan, 
or  North  Court,  had  been  deserted  for  years  and 
enjoyed  the  reputation  of  being  visited  by 
ghosts,  but  this  did  not  deter  Her  Majesty,  who 
cheerfully  settled  down  with  the  emperor  and 
her  little  suite  in  this  modest  abode. 

The  court,  I  remember  very  well,  issued  the 
daily  imperial  edicts  from  Sian-fu,  when  I  first 
came  to  Shanghai  in  March,  1901,  as  a  boy  of 
nineteen.  It  did  not  leave  its  exile  until  Sep¬ 
tember  when  it  returned  slowly,  and  with  more 
or  less  dignity,  to  Peking,  via  Honan-fu  and 
Kaifeng-fu. 

While  in  Sian-fu  the  imperial  fugitives  prac¬ 
tically  never  left  their  residence  and  altogether 
lived  a  very  retired,  quiet  life. 

Having  been  introduced  the  first  time  by  Mr. 
S chaumloeff el,  who  knew  the  minor  officials  in 
charge  of  the  former  palace,  which  can  now  never 
be  inhabited  by  anyone  since  Their  Sacred 
Majesties  have  dwelt  there,  I  visited  the  Pe- 
Yuan  several  times,  and  I  invariably  found  the 
attendants  willing  to  unlock  and  show  me  every¬ 
thing,  when  I  had  paid  the  always  expected 
“squeeze.” 

Considering  the  generous  size  of  the  imperial 
city  in  Peking,  I  should  say  that  Their  Majes- 


140  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


ties  must  have  looked  upon  their  Sian-fu  palace 
as  a  kind  of  prison.  The  yamen  is  by  no  means 
a  large  or  extended  one.  It  consists  of  some 
seven  or  eight  buildings  with  the  usual  court¬ 
yards  to  separate  them.  A  little  formal  garden 
is  also  found  between  the  dwellings  once  occu¬ 
pied  by  the  dowager-empress  and  her  imperial 
nephew,  while  an  artificial  fish-pond  and  a  pictur¬ 
esque  little  tea-pavilion  adorn  the  garden,  which 
is  now  permitted  to  grow  into  a  jungle. 

All  the  imperial  apartments  were  very  simple, 
and  not  too  extravagantly  furnished.  Although 
many  smaller  things  have,  of  course,  been  taken 
back  to  Peking,  the  furniture  stands  almost  as  it 
stood,  when  the  court  resided  there. 

We  first  pass  through  a  fairly  large  audience- 
hall  with  a  simple  wooden  throne  for  its  only 
ornament,  and  crossing  a  courtyard,  where  high 
grass  is  now  growing  up  between  the  stones,  we 
enter,  through  a  glass  door,  the  private  apart¬ 
ments  of  the  empress-dowager. 

A  thick  Chinese  carpet  is  spread  over  the  floor, 
and  the  chairs  and  couches,  with  imperial  yellow 
and  scarlet  silk  covers  and  cushions,  are  plentiful 
in  the  central  drawing-room.  Still,  large  mirrors 
and  cheap  foreign  clocks  seem  to  be  a  main- 
feature  of  the  outfit.  On  the  walls  we  find  draw¬ 
ings  on  white  silk,  several  of  which  have  been 
executed  by  the  enterprising  empress  herself. 


THE  ANCIENT  CITY  OF  SIAN-FU 


141 


Her  Majesty  has  duly  signed  and  sealed  her  own 
art  productions,  some  of  which,  a  set  of  four, 
represent  a  mountain  landscape,  while  others 
simply  show  huge  Chinese  characters,  meaning 
longevity,  happiness,  and  other  mundane  and 
celestial  endowments. 

We  enter  the  bedchamber  and  find  a  carved 
wooden  bedstead  of  no  remarkable  elegance,  with 
a  red  silk  cover.  On  a  table  near  the  bed  is  a 
large,  beautiful  sang-de-bceuf  vase,  flanked  by  a 
couple  of  clocks,  and  behind  the  bedroom  is  a 
small,  empty  bathroom.  A  few  more  rooms, 
furnished  in  a  way  similar  to  the  central  living- 
room,  made  up  the  whole  comfort  of  a  reigning 
empress  in  exile. 

The  emperor’s  rooms  were  in  another  house, 
facing  the  little  garden.  His  bed-chamber  did 
not  even  contain  a  proper  bed.  His  Majesty 
slept  on  a  castrum  doloris,  looking  half  like  a 
kang,  half  like  a  short  Chinese  sofa. 

In  another  house  with  entrance  from  the  gar¬ 
den  we  find  what  the  sinister  custodian  called  the 
emperor’s  council-room,  but  this  is  hardly  a  well- 
chosen  name,  as  the  empress-dowager  and  not 
Kwang  Hsii,  although  the  latter  was  usually 
present,  presided  over  the  council  of  state. 

The  council-room  was  certainly  the  most 
elaborate  of  all,  with  a  fairly  handsome  throne 
covered  with  yellow  silk,  and  several  chairs, 


142  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


beautifully  finished  in  inlaid  marble,  with  yellow 
and  red  covers,  marble  tables  for  serving  refresh¬ 
ments,  and  fine  wall-hangings,  all  painted  on 
white  silk.  The  inevitable  mirrors  and  a  large 
clock  were  not  lacking.  I  trust  that  the  young, 
unfortunate  emperor  spent  many  a  happy  hour 
of  leisure  in  this  attractive  sanctum. 

There  were  no  fishes  in  the  pond,  and  no  birds 
in  the  cages ;  and  unfortunately  it  proved  impos¬ 
sible  to  obtain  a  small  souvenir  from  the  palace, 
the  attendants  being  afraid  of  the  consequences 
of  committing  sacrilege. 

According  to  Chinese  custom,  the  emperor 
having  lived  in  them,  the  palaces  will  remain  un¬ 
inhabited  and  be  allowed  to  fall  into  decay. 
Repairs  will  not  be  effected;  the  buildings  will 
disappear  with  time  that  passes  unconcerned,  and 
some  day,  if  nothing  unexpected  happens,  the 
ground,  where  the  palace  of  the  Tsing  fugitives 
stood,  will  serve  as  a  pasture  ground  for  sheep, 
as  does  now  the  site  of  land  where  the  Tang 
imperial  city  once  stood — unless  indeed,  the  de¬ 
veloping  and  opening-up  of  China  eventually 
inspires  somebody  to  make  better  use  of  the 
valuable  ground. 

The  week-end,  June  22nd  to  24th,  Mr. 
Schaumloeffel  and  I  spent  very  pleasantly  at  the 
thermal  baths  at  Lintung-hsien.  We  quickly 
covered  the  sixteen  miles  on  a  beautiful  moon- 


THE  ANCIENT  CITY  OF  SIAN-FU 


143 


light  night,  Mr.  Schaumloeffel  in  his  chair,  our 
servants  in  carts,  and  I  on  the  postmaster’s  danc¬ 
ing  pony,  which  had,  I  believe,  never  seen  the 
moon  before. 

I  used  the  strong  young  animal  almost  every 
day  during  my  stay  at  Sian-fu,  riding  my  own 
English  saddle.  To  this  moment  I  do  not  under¬ 
stand  why  none  of  the  pony’s  numerous  schemes 
and  ingenious  attempts  to  throw  me  off  suc¬ 
ceeded.  He  had  some  most  fascinating,  unex¬ 
pected  side-springs,  whenever  his  three-year-old 
eye  perceived  anything  he  did  not  apprehend,  or 
whenever  some  object  dared  to  move  in  the  fields. 
Usually  I  let  him  have  his  own  sweet  way  and 
allowed  him  to  run  to  the  joy  of  his,  and  my  own 
heart  until  he  got  tired  of  it. 

My  worst  turn  with  him,  I  think,  was  when 
once  he  accidentally  stepped  on  the  drum-dry 
follicle  of  a  poppy-plant  on  the  way  back  from 
Tung  Yuan  Fang.  The  detonation  of  the  burst¬ 
ing  seed-vessel  was  loud  enough  to  make  him  lose 
his  light  head  completely,  and  I  truly  expected 
that  he  would  make  a  serious  attempt  to  jump 
across  the  Wei  in  order  speedily  to  get  home. 

Mr.  Schaumloeffel  told  me  of  his  intention  of 
presenting  the  Fathers  with  the  pony;  but  I  be¬ 
lieve  the  matter  was  dropped  for  the  time  being, 
as  I  associated  the  idea  with  manslaughter  in  a 
polite  but  firm  way. 


144  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


We  did  not  arrive  at  Lintung  until  the  small 
hours  of  the  morning,  but  everything  was  pre¬ 
pared,  as  we  had  despatched  a  messenger  in  good 
time.  The  imperial  pavilion  was  in  readiness  for 
us ;  and  I  had  the  unearned  distinction  of  occupy¬ 
ing  the  same  apartment,  and  even  bed,  which  had 
been  used  by  the  empress-dowager,  when  the 
court  had  sojourned  here  on  its  way  back  to 
Peking  in  the  autumn  of  1901. 

We  enjoyed  our  stay  and  the  sulphur-baths 
very  much  for  two  days,  and  then  returned  to 
Sian-fu  the  same  way  we  had  come. 


VII 

CHINA’S  FOREMOST  MONUMENT 


OF  all  the  historical  and  memorial  tablets 
in  and  near  Sian-fu,  or  for  that  matter  in 
the  whole  world,  the  famous  Nestorian 
Monument,*  or  Chingchiaopei,  as  the  natives  call 
it,  undoubtedly  ranks  as  one  of  the  first.  It  is 
perhaps  not  too  much  to  say  that,  while  these 
lines  are  being  written  on  the  river  Han,  in 
Hupeh  province,  medio  July  1907,  the  Nestorian 
Monument,  as  it  stands  outside  the  west-gate 
of  Sian-fu,  unheeded  and  neglected,  although 
known  to  science,  is  the  most  valuable  archaeolog¬ 
ical  treasure  in  the  world  that  has  not,  as  yet, 
been  acquired  by  any  museum,  scientific  institu¬ 
tion,  or  learned  corporation. 

It  is  true  that  rubbings  and  photographs  have 
been  taken  of  the  unique  inscription,  and  that 
translations  of  it  have  been  made  and  published 
— but  the  Stone  itself  stands  there,  abandoned 

*  The  author  has  already  written  fully  on  the  archaeo- 
logic  aspects  of  his  mission,  and  on  the  historical  and  other 
scientific  questions  anent  the  great  Monument.  He  hopes, 
however,  that  even  in  this  popular  account  of  his  efforts, 
some  mention  of  the  object  of  his  labours  may  not  prove 
entirely  amiss. 


145 


146  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


and  deserted,  in  all  kinds  of  wind  and  weather, 
and  only  the  very  rare  traveller  who  gets  as  far 
as  Sian-fu,  or  an  occasional  missionary,  pays  the 
Chingchiaopei  a  visit  of  brief  duration. 

As  has  already  been  said,  Christianity  first 
came  overland  from  “Ta  Tsin”  (Syria?)  to 
China  in  the  sixth  or  surely  in  the  first  half  of 
the  seventh  century  in  its  Nestorian  Protestant 
form,  and  was  allowed  to  flourish  under  the 
early  emperors  of  the  golden  and  oft-referred-to 
Tang  dynasty. 

Nestorian  Christians  were  encountered  in 
Cathay  and  Manji,  that  is  North  and  South 
China,  by  Marco  Polo,  when  he  travelled  in  these 
regions  towards  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

Olopun  and  his  fellow-priests  of  Nestorianism 
enjoyed  the  favour  of  the  imperial  court  and 
were  allowed  to  erect  churches  and  monasteries. 
The  Nestorian  Monument  proves  above  all  sus¬ 
picion  the  early  existence  of  Christianity  in  the 
Middle  Kingdom. 

The  Chingchiaopei,  or  Luminous  Teaching 
Stela,  is  dated  a.  d.  781  and  was  accidentally  ex¬ 
cavated  by  some  native  work-people  in  1625, 
when  it  was  placed  on  “a  fair  pedestal”  by  the 
Governor  of  Shensi. 

It  was  soon  visited  by  many  Chinese,  who  took 
an  interest  in  the  ancient  inscription,  which  is 
almost  miraculously  well-preserved.  F ather 


152  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


ways  and  means  of  trying  to  obtain  possession  of 
the  Chingchiaopei  for  the  scientific  world,  in 
order  that  the  Monumentum  Syro-Sinicum 
might  become  accessible  to  scholars  and  the  gen¬ 
eral  public  alike. 

I  visited  several  museum  officials  and  certain 
leading  men,  who  take  an  interest  in  the  preser¬ 
vation  of  irreplaceable  historical  monuments,  and 
I  was  encouraged  everywhere.  Just  as  there  is 
but  one  Rosetta  stone,  one  Moabite  stone,  and 
one  Aztec  Calendar  stone,  respectively  in  Lon¬ 
don,  Paris  and  Mexico  City,  there  is  but  one 
Nestorian  Stone — probably  the  world’s  four 
leading  monuments  of  their  kind. 

As  said,  I  found  encouragement  both  in  Lon¬ 
don  and  New  York  for  my  plan,  and  although  in 
no  way  charged  with  any  official  mission,  I  made 
it  the  chief  object  of  the  expedition  to  do  every¬ 
thing  in  my  power  to  try  to  obtain  possession  of 
this  ancient  Monument,  which  is  certainly  better 
off  in  any  well-organized  museum  than  exposed, 
in  a  Chinese  temple-ground  amidst  opium  and 
wheat-fields,  to  inclement  weather  and  spoliation. 

The  fact  should  not  be  overlooked  that  it  is 
only  a  mere  question  of  time,  when  the  railway 
will  reach  Sian-fu;  and  it  is  consequently  certain 
that  the  Nestorian  Monument  will  not  long  be 
permitted  to  remain  in  its  present  undeserved 
state  of  degradation,  unless  it  gets  under  the 


CHINA’S  FOREMOST  MONUMENT 


147 


Alvaro  Semedo,  the  Portuguese  Jesuit,  visited 
the  Monument  in  1628  and  reported  on  it. 

For  decades  afterwards  the  Stone  was  little 
thought  of  and  rarely  visited,  and  the  brick-niche 
which  once  had  been  built  over  it  disappeared. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  last  century,  in  1891,  a 
small  roof  was  erected  over  the  Stone  at  the  sug¬ 
gestion  of  the  corps  diplomatique  in  Peking, 
which  had  induced  the  Tsungli  Yamen,  the  then 
Foreign  Office,  to  guard  the  Monument  against 
injury. 

One  hundred  taels  were  sent  to  Sian-fu  from 
Peking;  but  in  those  days  there  was  no  post 
office,  and  only  five  taels  reached  Sian-fu  in 
safety,  the  balance  having  inconveniently  been 
absorbed  underway. 

Thus  the  shed  erected  was  of  a  very  inferior 
kind  and,  in  a  year,  had  quite  disappeared ! 

Mr.  W.  W.  Rockhill,  the  United  States 
former  envoy  to  China,  who  made  a  great  name 
for  himself  by  exploring  parts  of  Thibet  some 
fifteen  years  back,  told  me  while  I  was  at  Peking, 
that  “the  Chinese  thought  quite  a  good  deal  of 
the  Stone  and  had  had  a  shed  erected  to  protect 
it  some  time  ago.” 

I  am  afraid,  however,  that  the  distinguished 
diplomat  and  traveller  would  be  very  disap¬ 
pointed  to  behold  the  precious  old  Monument 
stand  as  naked  and  unprotected  as  its  numerous 


148  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


fellow-stelae  of  minor  value  and  lesser  age,  which 
are  found  by  the  score  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
ancient  capital. 

Several  translations  of  the  Chinese  and  Syriac- 
Estrangelo  inscriptions,  as  we  shall  see  in  the 
following  chapter,  have  been  made  and  printed; 
but  the  task  of  deciphering  and  putting  exact 
meaning  into  the  two  thousand  odd  ideographs 
on  the  Stone  is  almost  an  impossible  one. 

The  translation  by  the  well-known  Dr.  A. 
Wylie,  and  the  more  recent  one  by  Professor 
P.  Y.  Saeki,  both  of  which  are  rendered  in 
eoctenso  further  on,  are  probably  the  best  and 
most  lucid. 

Between  Semedo  and  Saeki  is  a  span  of 
three  hundred  years,  and  many  are  the  dis¬ 
tinguished  names  that,  at  one  time  or  another, 
have  become  attached  to  matters  concerning  the 
Chingchiaopei. 

I  mention,  almost  at  random,  such  names  as 
Trigault,  Kircher,  Voltaire,  Heller,  Williamson, 
Muller,  Cordier,  Kreitner,  Wells  Williams, 
Chavannes,  Pauthier,  Pelliot,  Havret,  Yohan- 
nan,  Legge,  Moule,  and  many  others,  who  have 
contributed  their  valuable  opinions  and  reports, 
or  who  have,  at  least,  inspired  discussion  of  the 
history  and  importance  of  the  Monument. 

On  the  10th  of  June,  1907,  I  first  visited  the 
resting  place  of  the  Nestorian  Monument. 


CHINA’S  FOREMOST  MONUMENT 


149 


I  went  out  alone  on  horseback,  through  the 
western  gate,  traversed  the  western  suburb  and, 
having  passed  some  military  barracks  outside  the 
suburban  gate,  had  no  great  difficulty  in  locating 
the  old  Buddhistic  temple,  on  the  premises  of 
which  the  Stone  was  situated. 

An  arched  brick-entrance  in  ruins,  and  some 
indications  of  a  withering  mud-wall,  show  the 
former  impressive  extent  of  this  ecclesiastic  es¬ 
tablishment,  but  today  we  only  find  a  compara¬ 
tively  modern  centre-building,  which  is  more  like 
a  farm  than  a  temple. 

Everybody  was  busy  with  the  wheat  harvest, 
even  the  three  Buddhist  priests,  and  nobody  in¬ 
terfered  with  me  as  I  walked  about  taking 
snap-shots,  wondering  at  the  dilapidated  sur¬ 
roundings  of  China’s  foremost  Monument. 

Behind  the  farm-temple  is  a  piece  of  ground, 
where  a  stone- arch  and  several  memorial  tablets 
are  situated. 

In  a  row  of  five  stones  the  Chingchiaopei  is 
the  fourth,  counting  towards  the  east.  Like 
most  stones  of  a  memorial  nature,  it  stands  on 
the  back  of  a  clumsily-worked  stone-tortoise, 
although  the  Monolith  itself  is  of  superb 
workmanship. 

Nothing  is  left  of  a  protecting  shed,  and 
nothing  indicates,  as  some  writers,  most  likely 
wrongly,  assert  that  the  Stone  and  its  neigh- 


150  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


hours,  which  do  not  even  stand  in  a  straight  line, 
have  even  been  built  into  a  brick-wall. 

An  old  picture  of  the  Stela  shows  it  encased  in 
a  kind  of  brick-niche,  and  it  is  by  no  means  im¬ 
possible  that  this  has  given  rise  to  the  wrongful 
idea  concerning  a  brick-wall.  But  there  is  now 
no  trace  of  any  niche  around  the  Slab,  nor  of 
any  later  wooden  shed;  and  the  seventy-six  year 
old  chief  priests,  Yu  Show,  who  has  been  con¬ 
stantly  on  the  spot  for  more  than  fifty  years, 
only  remembers  the  priceless  Tablet  standing 
free  and  frank  and  lonely,  looking  apart  from 
the  five-tael,  ramshackle  contraption  of  1891. 

The  Syro-Chinese  inscription,  in  upwards  of 
two-thousand  Chinese  ideographs,  carved  with 
supreme  skill  in  matchless  Tang  calligraphy  by 
Lii  Siu  Yen,  following  the  authorship  of  the 
priest  Ching  Tsing,  is,  as  indicated,  in  splendid 
preservation.  Only  two  of  the  characters  are 
really  badly  impaired,  which  is  said  to  have  been 
done  by  the  bonzes,  who  thought  too  much 
attention  was  being  paid  to  this  non-Buddhistic 
memorial.  Such  an  accusation,  however,  is  prob¬ 
ably  untrue. 

The  nine  large  characters,  forming  the  title  of 
the  inscription,  and  which,  when  romanized,  read 

TA-TSIN-CHING-CHIAO-LIU-HSING-CHUNG-KUO-PEI, 

are  surmounted  by  a  beautiful  Christian  Cross, 


CHINA’S  FOREMOST  MONUMENT 


151 


which  latter  is  traced  with  a  hand  much  less  cer¬ 
tain  and  positive  than  the  hand  that  chiselled  the 
Chinese  inscription  itself.  The  same  applies 
without  doubt  to  the  Syriac  portions  of  the 
inscription. 

I  have,  therefore,  more  than  a  decade  ago, 
advanced  the  probability  that  one  of  the  Nesto- 
,rian  missionaries  added  the  Cross,  as  well  as  the 
Syriac  words,  as  an  afterthought,  and  a  very 
gracious  one  at  that.  However,  in  workmanship 
he  fell  far  behind  the  Chinese  calligrapher,  whose 
“penmanship”  all  scholars  agree  in  lauding. 

Near  the  Nestorian  Stone  I  noticed  a  large, 
grey-white  stone-basin  of  fine  workmanship, 
which  looked  quite  European.  The  idea  readily 
suggests  itself  that  this  stone-basin  may  be  an 
old  baptismal  font,  but  it  bears  an  inscription 
inside,  dated  1797,  and  it  is  stated  that  it  was 
presented  to  the  temple  by  a  a  travelling  high 
official  for  some  unknown  reason. 

The  other  stones  in  the  temple-grounds  are  of 
no  immediate  interest,  their  inscriptions  giving 
the  history  of  the  once  important  farm-temple  as 
a  monastery,  and  the  names  and  titles  of  various 
donors. 

For  years  I  had  known  about  the  undignified 
emplacement  of  the  Nestorian  Monument  of 
Sian-fu.  In  January  last  I  discussed,  as  indi¬ 
cated,  with  various  authorities  in  London  the 


152  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


ways  and  means  of  trying  to  obtain  possession  of 
the  Chingchiaopei  for  the  scientific  world,  in 
order  that  the  Monumentum  Syro-Sinicum 
might  become  accessible  to  scholars  and  the  gen¬ 
eral  public  alike. 

I  visited  several  museum  officials  and  certain 
leading  men,  who  take  an  interest  in  the  preser¬ 
vation  of  irreplaceable  historical  monuments,  and 
I  was  encouraged  everywhere.  Just  as  there  is 
but  one  Rosetta  stone,  one  Moabite  stone,  and 
one  Aztec  Calendar  stone,  respectively  in  Lon¬ 
don,  Paris  and  Mexico  City,  there  is  but  one 
Nestorian  Stone — probably  the  world’s  four 
leading  monuments  of  their  kind. 

As  said,  I  found  encouragement  both  in  Lon¬ 
don  and  New  York  for  my  plan,  and  although  in 
no  way  charged  with  any  official  mission,  I  made 
it  the  chief  object  of  the  expedition  to  do  every¬ 
thing  in  my  power  to  try  to  obtain  possession  of 
this  ancient  Monument,  which  is  certainly  better 
off  in  any  well-organized  museum  than  exposed, 
in  a  Chinese  temple-ground  amidst  opium  and 
wheat-fields,  to  inclement  weather  and  spoliation. 

The  fact  should  not  be  overlooked  that  it  is 
only  a  mere  question  of  time,  when  the  railway 
will  reach  Sian-fu;  and  it  is  consequently  certain 
that  the  Nestorian  Monument  will  not  long  be 
permitted  to  remain  in  its  present  undeserved 
state  of  degradation,  unless  it  gets  under  the 


{Top)  The  Nestorian  Monument,  second  from  the  right  in  a 

row  of  five  memorial  stones. 

( Bottom )  Dilapidated  arch  and  desolate  surroundings  of  the 
ancient  Stela,  when  I  first  visited  it. 


160 


MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


much  as  he  is  the  source  of  all 
that  is  honourable.  This  is  our 
eternal  true  lord  God,  triune  and 
mysterious  in  substance.  He  ap¬ 
pointed  the  cross  as  the  means  for 
determining  the  four  cardinal 
points,  he  moved  the  original 
spirit,  and  produced  the  two  prin¬ 
ciples  of  nature;  the  sombre  void 
was  changed,  and  heaven  and 
earth  were  opened  out;  the  sun 
and  moon  revolved,  and  day  and 
night  commenced ;  having  per¬ 
fected  all  inferior  objects,  he  then 
made  the  first  man;  upon  him  he 
bestowed  an  excellent  disposition, 
giving  him  in  charge  the  govern¬ 
ment  of  all  created  beings;  man, 
acting  out  the  original  principles 
of  his  nature,  was  pure  and  unos¬ 
tentatious;  his  unsullied  and  ex¬ 
pansive  mind  was  free  from  the 
least  inordinate  desire ;  until 
Satan  introduced  the  seeds  of 
falsehood,  to  deteriorate  his  pur¬ 
ity  of  principle;  the  opening  thus 
commenced  in  his  virtue  gradually 
enlarged,  and  by  this  crevice  in 
his  nature  was  obscured  and 
rendered  vicious ;  hence  three  hun¬ 
dred  and  sixty-five  sects  followed 
each  other  in  continuous  track, 
inventing  every  species  of  doc¬ 
trinal  complexity ;  while  some 


istence  on  all  the  Holy  ones,  is 
the  only  unoriginated  Lord  of  the 
Universe, — is  not  this  our  Aloha 
the  Triune,  mysterious  Person, 
the  unbegotten  and  true  Lord? 

Dividing  the  Cross,  He  de¬ 
termined  the  four  cardinal  points. 
Setting  in  motion  the  primordial 
spirit  (wind),  He  produced  the 
two  principles  of  Nature.  The 
dark  void  was  changed,  and 
Heaven  and  Earth  appeared. 
The  sun  and  moon  revolved,  and 
day  and  night  began.  Having  de¬ 
signed  and  fashioned  all  things. 
He  then  created  the  first  man  and 
bestowed  on  him  an  excellent  dis¬ 
position,  superior  to  all  others, 
and  gave  him  to  have  dominion 
over  the  Ocean  of  created  things. 

The  original  nature  of  Man  was 
pure,  and  void  of  all  selfishness, 
unstained  and  unostentatious,  his 
mind  was  free  from  inordinate 
lust  and  passion.  When,  how¬ 
ever,  Satan  employed  his  evil  de¬ 
vices  on  him,  Man’s  pure  and 
stainless  (nature)  was  deterio¬ 
rated;  the  perfect  attainment  of 
goodness  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
entire  exemption  from  wickedness 
on  the  other  became  alike  impos¬ 
sible  for  him. 

In  consequence  of  this,  three 


CHINA’S  FOREMOST  MONUMENT 


153 


direct  protection  of  the  Chinese  Government 
before  that  event.  This,  as  we  shall  see  later, 
was  soon  to  happen. 

As  one  may  observe  from  the  photograph,  the 
Monument  is  a  large  one,  measuring  nine  feet  in 
height  (ten  feet,  when  the  prolongation  at  its 
base  is  included),  between  three  and  four  feet  in 
width,  and  nearly  one  foot  in  thickness.  The 
weight  of  the  Monolith  is  two  tons,  rather  more 
than  less.  The  difficulties  in  connection  with 
transporting  it — or  an  exact  Replica — were,  in 
view  of  the  state  of  the  alleged  roads,  appalling, 
as  it  would  first  be  necessary  to  haul  the  Stela  on 
a  specially  constructed  cart,  over  350  miles  before 
reaching  the  Peking-Hankow  railway.  However, 
I  had  evolved  certain  ideas  how  to  overcome  all 
these  apparently  insurmountable  difficulties. 

I  also  had  conceived  a  minute  plan  in  connec¬ 
tion  with  the  actual  acquisition  of  the  Monument 
— and  a  perfectly  straight  one  at  that,  as  I 
should  strongly  object  to  being  the  chief  of  any 
marauding  expedition  into  the  interior  of  the 
peaceful  Land  of  Sinim. 

During  my  stay  in  Sian-fu,  I  consequently 
paid  numerous  visits  with  my  interpreter  to  the 
temple,  where  the  Monument  stands,  and  event¬ 
ually,  principally  through  the  easy  medium  of 
well-selected  presents,  I  got  on  very  friendly 
terms  with  the  kind-hearted,  old  chief-priest*  Yii 


154  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


Show,  who  has  resided  on  the  spot  during  the  last 
five  decades. 

According  to  his  statement,  which  I  believe, 
theoretically  at  any  rate,  holds  good,  all  the 
monuments  on  the  premises,  together  with  the 
stone-basin  and  the  arch,  belong  to  the  temple, 
which  again,  he  says,  belongs  to  him. 

It  will  eventually  pass  into  the  possession  of 
his  opium-steeped,  adopted  son,  the  secondary 
priest  of  forlorn  visage,  whom  I  took  the  liberty 
to  exclude  from  our  conferences. 

Still  I  am  quite  aware  of  the  fact  that  temples 
and  temple-belongings  are  generally  considered 
imperial  property — but  then,  everything  in 
China,  without  exception,  according  to  the  law, 
belongs  to  the  emperor. 

What  might  have  been  the  final  outcome  of 
these  promising  negotiations,  which  I  did  not 
care  to  carry  too  far  all  of  a  sudden,  I  shall  not 
venture  to  conjecture;  but  the  result  might  have 
proven  a  very  satisfactory  one,  had  complications 
not  arisen  from  an  unexpected  quarter. 

It  has  often  been  averred,  by  Chinese  and  for¬ 
eigners  alike,  that  much  trouble  in  the  Celestial 
Empire  is  due  to  the  sometimes  unwise  propa¬ 
ganda  of  inexperienced  missionaries,  new  in  their 
chosen  profession. 

This  statement  may,  perhaps,  be  exaggerated, 
although  I  voice  the  opinion  that,  politically 


CHINA’S  FOREMOST  MONUMENT 


155 


speaking,  China  would  be  better  off  without  de¬ 
nominational,  foreign  missions. 

Yet,  the  recall  of  missionaries  in  general  would 
hardly  be  in  line  with  the  Far  Eastern  policy  of 
the  greedy  powers,  whom  the  proselytizers  serve 
in  many  ways  as  true  pioneers  and  enterprising 
intelligence  officers  in  return  for  moral,  govern¬ 
mental  support. 

It  was  nothing  if  not  natural  that  the  local 
missionaries,  whom  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
in  Sian-fu,  should  mention  the  historical  objects 
of  their  district  worth  seeing,  and  it  was  a  fore¬ 
gone  conclusion  that  the  Nestorian  Monument 
was  prominently  mentioned,  and  its  tremendous 
importance  discussed,  during  these  conversations. 

I  have  never  been  able  to  forget  the  Roman 
Catholic  missionary-bishop’s  mention  of  the  old 
Tablet. 

This  hospitable  prelate  said  to  me,  in  casually 
mentioning  that  I  ought  to  go  and  see  the  Monu¬ 
ment  while  in  Sian-fu,  that  he  had  at  one  time 
seriously  considered  shipping  the  Stela  to  the 
Vatican  as  a  gift  from  himself. 

The  difficulty  of  transportation,  the  bishop 
said,  would  have  been  overcome  by — Deo  vol- 
ente — cutting  the  two-ton,  nine-foot  Monument 
into  three  pieces ! 

From  my  discussions  with  the  Sian-fu  mis¬ 
sionaries,  it  gradually,  and  with  increasing  force, 


156  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


became  clear  to  me  that  all  the  mission-stations 
at  Sian-fu  virtually  considered  the  ancient 
Monument  their  lawful  property;  and  that  every 
local  missionary  sincerely  and  fondly  considered 
himself  a  co-operative  proprietor  and  high  pro¬ 
tector  of  the  Stela. 

This  conception  of  things  appears  to  my  hum¬ 
ble  mind,  to  say  the  least,  somewhat  extraordi¬ 
nary,  for  while  the  missions  are  certainly  most 
welcome  to  protect  the  Stone  of  Stones — a  task 
they  have  hitherto,  by  the  way,  utterly  and 
wholly  neglected — they  surely  had  no  more  legal 
right  to  the  Monument  than  the  man  in  the 
moon,  or  the  author  of  these  pages. 

The  great  Monument  belongs,  of  course,  to 
the  Chinese  nation. 

The  missionaries  apparently  think  that,  be¬ 
cause  the  Stela  was  laboriously  carved  and  rev¬ 
erently  erected  by  the  first  Christian  missioners 
to  China,  nearly  eleven  and  a  half  centuries  ago, 
they  possess  a  sort  of  inherited,  perpetual  pro¬ 
prietorship  in  the  Stone,  being  themselves  mis¬ 
sionaries  at  Sian-fu. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  I  had  no  difficulty  in  sensing 
that  some  kind  of  suspicion  against  me  and  my 
object  in  visiting  Sian-fu,  where  I  stayed  four 
weeks,  was  crystallizing  day  by  day. 

I  realized,  through  remarks  that  I  was  fortu¬ 
nate  in  picking  up  here  and  there,  and  which  I 


THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


165 


Emperor  Taitsung,  the  illustrious 
and  magnificent  founder  of  the 
dynasty,  among  the  enlightened 
and  holy  men  who  arrived  was 
the  Most-virtuous  Olopun,  from 
the  country  of  Syria.  Observ¬ 
ing  the  azure  clouds,  he  bore  the 
true  sacred  books;  beholding  the 
direction  of  the  winds,  he  braved 
difficulties  and  dangers.  In  the 
year  a.  d.  635  he  arrived  at 
Chang-an;  the  Emperor  sent  his 
Prime  Minister,  Duke  Fang 
Hiuen-ling;  who,  carrying  the  of¬ 
ficial  staff  to  the  west  border,  con¬ 
ducted  his  guest  into  the  interior; 
the  sacred  books  were  translated 
in  the  imperial  library,  the  sover¬ 
eign  investigated  the  subject  in 
his  private  apartments;  when  be¬ 
coming  deeply  impressed  with  the 
rectitude  and  truth  of  the  relig¬ 
ion,  he  gave  special  orders  for  its 
dissemination.  In  the  seventh 
month  of  the  year  a.  d.  638  the 
following  imperial  proclamation 
was  issued: 

“Right  principles  have  no  in¬ 
variable  name,  holy  men  have  no 
invariable  station;  instruction  is 
established  in  accordance  with  the 
locality,  with  the  object  of  bene¬ 
fiting  the  people  at  large.  The 
Greatly-virtuous  Olopun,  of  the 


peror  T’ai-Tsung  (627-649  a.  d.) 
began  his  magnificent  career  in 
glory  and  splendour  over  the  (re¬ 
cently)  established  dynasty  and 
ruled  his  people  with  intelligence, 
he  proved  himself  to  be  a  brilliant 
Sage. 

And  behold  there  was  a  highly 
virtuous  man  named  A-lo-pen  in 
the  Kingdom  of  Ta-ch’in.  Augur¬ 
ing  (of  the  Sage,  i.  e.  Emperor) 
from  the  azure  sky,  he  decided  to 
carry  the  true  Sutras  (of  the  True 
Way)  with  him,  and  observing  the 
course  of  the  winds,  he  made  his 
way  (to  China)  through  difficul¬ 
ties  and  perils.  Thus  in  the  Ninth 
year  of  the  period  named  Cheng- 
kuan  (635  a.  d.)  he  arrived  at 
Ch’ang-an.  The  Emperor  des¬ 
patched  his  Minister,  Duke  Fang 
Hsiian-ling,  with  a  guard  of  hon¬ 
our,  to  the  western  suburb  to 
meet  the  visitor  and  conduct  him 
to  the  Palace.  The  Sutras  (Scrip¬ 
tures)  were  translated  in  the  Im¬ 
perial  Library.  (His  Majesty) 
investigated  “The  Way”  in  his 
own  Forbidden  apartments,  and 
being  deeply  convinced  of  its  cor¬ 
rectness  and  truth,  he  gave  spe¬ 
cial  orders  for  its  propagation. 

In  the  Twelfth  year  of  the 
Cheng-kuan  period  (a.  d.  638)  in 


Yu  Show,  Chief  Priest  of  the  Buddha  Temple,  near  which  he 
had  guarded  the  Monument  more  than  fifty  years.  He 
stands  in  front  of  the  tnmbled-down  Temple  Bell,  while  the 
shed  behind  him  is  the  barn  within  which  the  Replica  was 
executed  in  secret. 


CHINA’S  FOREMOST  MONUMENT 


157 


correctly  interpreted,  that  the  suspicion  was  un¬ 
questionably  taking  shape;  and,  as  I  was,  for 
obvious  reasons,  in  no  position  openly  to  run 
counter  to  the  ideas  of  ISTestorian  ownership,  as 
subvoiced  in  missionary  circles  at  Sian-fu,  I  pre¬ 
ferred  outwardly  to  abandon,  or  at  least  abate, 
my  ambitions  for  the  time  being,  and  to  depart 
from  Shensi  without  finishing  my  Buddhistic 
negotiations  for  obtaining  possession,  in  a  fair 
and  above-board  manner,  of  China’s  foremost 
Monument. 

After  making  some  confidential  arrangements, 
which  later  on  will  become  of  interest  in  this  nar¬ 
rative,  I  informed  Mr.  Schaumloeffel,  between 
whom  and  myself  the  natural  friendship  of  exiles 
had  sprung  up  during  my  sojourn  under  his  roof, 
that  my  studies  and  investigations  were  at  an  end, 
and  that  the  literary  results  had  been  satisfactory. 

But,  whatever  my  words  of  adieu ,  I  nourished 
a  reservatio  mentalis ,  that  it  was  hy  no  means  my 
intention  never  to  revisit  Sian-fu,  nor  forever  to 
give  up  my  plan  in  connection  with  the  acquisi¬ 
tion  of  the  ISTestorian  Monument,  or  even  of  a 
perfect  Nestorian  Beplica. 

Likewise,  I  promised  myself,  while  arranging 
for  my  cross-alpine  departure,  that  the  secret 
arangements  I  had  made  in  and  near  Sian-fu 
should  not  be  allowed  to  meet  with  premature 
death,  nor  even  with  failure. 


VIII 

THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


TO  make  a  literal  translation  of  the  Syro-Chinese  in¬ 
scription  on  the  Nestorian  Monument  is  impossible. 
The  fine  shadings  of  words,  or  rather  ideographs, 
that  gave  colour  and  highlights  to  the  exquisite  prose  and 
verse  of  the  Tang  Dynasty  writers,  have,  in  a  measure, 
been  lost.  While  the  meaning  of  each  and  every  character 
on  the  Stone,  in  the  grosser  sense  of  the  word,  is  undoubt¬ 
edly  the  same  today  as  it  was  in  a.  d.  781,  the  subtler 
values  have,  even  according  to  Chinese  scholars,  changed 
and  sideshifted,  however  imperceptibly. 

The  bilingual  inscription  bears  incontestable  witness  to 
one  of  the  greatest  historic  romances  ever  enacted  on 
Asian  or,  for  that  matter,  on  any  other  soil. 

It  fires  the  imagination  to  think  of  the  heroism  of  that 
little  band  of  Nestorian  emissaries,  who  crossed  Asia  and 
introduced  Christianity  to  the  Sons  of  Han  even  more 
than  six  centuries  before  the  second  Christian  mission 
came  into  China,  namely  that  of  Bishop  John  of  Monte- 
corvino,  for  N estorianism  arrived  not  later  than  a.  d.  635, 
while  the  Roman  Catholicism  came,  via  India,  a.  d.  1292. 
But  let  the  inscription  speak  for  itself! 

The  two  translations  chosen  here  from  a  goodly  number 
are  those  of  the  English  scholar,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Alexander 


158 


THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


159 


Wylie,  and  of  the  distinguished  Professor  P.  Y.  Saeki, 
of  Waseda  University  in  Tokio.  They  are  printed  in 
parallel  columns,  as  an  experiment,  for  better  comparison. 


By  A.  Wylie. 

( Reprinted  from  “  The  Nesto- 
rian  Monument,”  hy  Frits  Holm 
and  Paul  Carus,  'published  by  the 
Open  Court  Publishing  Company , 
Chicago,  1909.) 

Tablet  Eulogizing  the  Propaga¬ 
tion  of  the  Illustrious  Religion  in 
China,  With  a  Preface;  Composed 
by  King-Tsing,  a  Priest  of  the 
Syrian  Church. 


Behold  the  unchangeably  true 
and  invisible,  who  existed  through 
all  eternity  without  origin ;  the 
far-seeing  perfect  intelligence, 
whose  mysterious  existence  is 
everlasting;  operating  on  primor¬ 
dial  substance  he  created  the 
universe,  being  more  excellent 
than  all  holy  intelligences,  inas- 


By  P.  Y.  Saeki. 

( Reprinted  from  “  The  Nesto- 
rian  Monument  in  China,”  by  P. 
Y.  Saeki,  published  by  the  Society 
for  Promoting  Christian  Knowl¬ 
edge,  London,  1916.) 

A  Monument  commemorating 
the  Propagation  of  The  Ta-ch’in 
Luminous  Religion  in  the  Middle 
Kingdom. 

Eulogy  on  a  Monument  com¬ 
memorating  the  propagation  of 
the  Luminous  Religion  in  the 
Middle  Kingdom,  with  a  Preface 
to  the  same,  composed  by  Ching- 
ching,  a  priest  of  the  Ta-ch’in 
monastery.  (In  Syriac),  Adam, 
priest  and  chorepiscopos,  and 
papas  (pope)  of  Zhinastan. 

Behold !  there  is  One  who  is 
true  and  firm,  who,  being  Un¬ 
created,  is  the  Origin  of  the 
origins;  who  is  ever  Incompre¬ 
hensible  and  Invisible,  yet  ever 
mysteriously  existing  to  the  last 
of  the  lasts;  who,  holding  the 
Secret  Source  of  Origin,  created 
all  things,  and  who,  bestowing  ex- 


160 


MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


much  as  he  is  the  source  of  all 
that  is  honourable.  This  is  our 
eternal  true  lord  God,  triune  and 
mysterious  in  substance.  He  ap¬ 
pointed  the  cross  as  the  means  for 
determining  the  four  cardinal 
points,  he  moved  the  original 
spirit,  and  produced  the  two  prin¬ 
ciples  of  nature;  the  sombre  void 
was  changed,  and  heaven  and 
earth  were  opened  out;  the  sun 
and  moon  revolved,  and  day  and 
night  commenced ;  having  per¬ 
fected  all  inferior  objects,  he  then 
made  the  first  man;  upon  him  he 
bestowed  an  excellent  disposition, 
giving  him  in  charge  the  govern¬ 
ment  of  all  created  beings;  man, 
acting  out  the  original  principles 
of  his  nature,  was  pure  and  unos¬ 
tentatious;  his  unsullied  and  ex¬ 
pansive  mind  was  free  from  the 
least  inordinate  desire ;  until 
Satan  introduced  the  seeds  of 
falsehood,  to  deteriorate  his  pur¬ 
ity  of  principle;  the  opening  thus 
commenced  in  his  virtue  gradually 
enlarged,  and  by  this  crevice  in 
his  nature  was  obscured  and 
rendered  vicious ;  hence  three  hun¬ 
dred  and  sixty-five  sects  followed 
each  other  in  continuous  track, 
inventing  every  species  of  doc¬ 
trinal  complexity ;  while  some 


istence  on  all  the  Holy  ones,  is 
the  only  unoriginated  Lord  of  the 
Universe, — is  not  this  our  Aloha 
the  Triune,  mysterious  Person, 
the  unbegotten  and  true  Lord? 

Dividing  the  Cross,  He  de¬ 
termined  the  four  cardinal  points. 
Setting  in  motion  the  primordial 
spirit  (wind),  He  produced  the 
two  principles  of  Nature.  The 
dark  void  was  changed,  and 
Heaven  and  Earth  appeared. 
The  sun  and  moon  revolved,  and 
day  and  night  began.  Having  de¬ 
signed  and  fashioned  all  things. 
He  then  created  the  first  man  and 
bestowed  on  him  an  excellent  dis¬ 
position,  superior  to  all  others, 
and  gave  him  to  have  dominion 
over  the  Ocean  of  created  things. 

The  original  nature  of  Man  was 
pure,  and  void  of  all  selfishness, 
unstained  and  unostentatious,  his 
mind  was  free  from  inordinate 
lust  and  passion.  When,  how¬ 
ever,  Satan  employed  his  evil  de¬ 
vices  on  him,  Man’s  pure  and 
stainless  (nature)  was  deterio¬ 
rated;  the  perfect  attainment  of 
goodness  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
entire  exemption  from  wickedness 
on  the  other  became  alike  impos¬ 
sible  for  him. 

In  consequence  of  this,  three 


THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


161 


pointed  to  material  objects  as  the 
source  of  their  faith,  others  re¬ 
duced  all  to  vacancy,  even  to  the 
annihilation  of  the  two  primeval 
principles ;  some  sought  to  call 
down  blessings  by  prayers  and 
supplications,  while  others  by  an 
assumption  of  excellence  held 
themselves  up  as  superior  to  their 
fellows ;  their  intellects  and 
thoughts  continually  wavering, 
their  minds  and  affections  inces¬ 
santly  on  the  move,  they  never 
obtained  their  vast  desires,  but 
being  exhausted  and  distressed 
they  revolved  in  their  own  heated 
atmosphere;  till  by  an  accumula¬ 
tion  of  obscurity  they  lost  their 
path,  and  after  long  groping  in 
darkness  they  were  unable  to  re¬ 
turn.  Thereupon,  our  Trinity 
being  divided  in  nature,  the  illus¬ 
trious  and  honourable  Messiah, 
veiling  his  true  dignity,  appeared 
in  the  world  as  a  man;  angelic 
powers  promulgated  the  glad  tid¬ 
ings,  a  virgin  gave  birth  to  the 
Holy  One  in  Syria;  a  bright  star 
announced  the  felicitous  event, 
and  Persians  observing  the  splen¬ 
dour  came  to  present  tribute;  the 
ancient  dispensation,  as  declared 
by  the  twenty-four  holy  men,  was 
then  fulfilled,  and  he  laid  down 


hundred  and  sixty-five  different 
forms  (of  error)  arose  in  quick 
succession  and  left  deep  furrows 
behind.  They  strove  to  weave 
nets  of  the  laws  wherewith  to  en¬ 
snare  the  innocent.  Some  point¬ 
ing  to  natural  objects  pretended 
that  they  were  the  right  objects  to 
worship ;  others  denied  the  reality 
of  existence,  and  insisted  on  ig¬ 
noring  the  duality ;  some  sought  to 
call  down  blessings  (happiness  or 
success)  by  means  of  prayers  and 
sacrifices ;  others  again  boasted  of 
their  own  goodness,  and  held  their 
fellows  in  contempt.  (Thus)  the 
intellect  and  the  thoughts  of  Men 
fell  into  hopeless  confusion;  and 
their  mind  and  affections  began  to 
toil  incessantly ;  but  all  their  trav¬ 
ail  was  in  vain.  The  heat  of  their 
distress  became  a  scorching  flame ; 
and  self-blinded,  thev  increased 
the  darkness  still  more ;  and  losing 
their  path  for  a  long  while  they 
went  astray  and  became  unable  to 
return  home  again. 

Whereupon  one  Person  of  our 
Trinity,  the  Messiah,  who  is  the 
Luminous  Lord  of  the  Universe, 
veiling  His  true  Majesty,  ap¬ 
peared  upon  earth  as  a  man. 
Angels  proclaimed  the  Glad  Tid¬ 
ings.  A  virgin  gave  birth  to  the 


162 


MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


great  principles  for  the  govern¬ 
ment  of  families  and  kingdoms; 
he  established  the  new  religion  of 
the  silent  operation  of  the  pure 
spirit  of  the  Triune;  he  rendered 
virtue  subservient  to  direct  faith; 
he  fixed  the  extent  of  the  eight 
boundaries,  thus  completing  the 
truth  and  freeing  it  from  dross; 
he  opened  the  gate  of  the  three 
constant  principles,  introducing 
life  and  destroying  death;  he  sus¬ 
pended  the  bright  sun  to  invade 
the  chambers  of  darkness,  and  the 
falsehoods  of  the  devil  were  there¬ 
upon  defeated;  he  set  in  motion 
the  vessel  of  mercy  by  which  to 
ascend  to  the  bright  mansions, 
whereupon  rational  beings  were 
then  released,  having  thus  com¬ 
pleted  the  manifestation  of  his 
power,  in  clear  day  he  ascended 
to  his  true  station.  Twenty-seven 
sacred  books  have  been  left,  which 
disseminate  intelligence  by  un¬ 
folding  the  original  transforming 
principles.  By  the  rule  for  ad¬ 
mission,  it  is  the  custom  to  apply 
the  water  of  baptism,  to  wash 
away  all  superficial  show  and  to 
cleanse  and  purify  the  neophytes. 
As  a  seal,  they  hold  the  cross, 
whose  influence  is  reflected  in 
every  direction,  uniting  all  with- 


Holy  One  in  Ta-ch’in.  A  bright 
Star  announced  the  blessed  event. 
Persians  saw  the  splendour  and 
came  forth  with  their  tribute. 

Fulfilling  the  old  Law  as  it 
was  declared  by  the  twenty-four 
Sages,  He  (the  Messiah)  taught 
how  to  rule  both  families  and 
kingdoms  according  to  His  own 
great  Plan.  Establishing  His 
New  Teaching  of  Non-assertion 
which  operates  silently  through 
the  Holy  Spirit,  another  Person 
of  the  Trinity,  He  formed  in 
man  the  capacity  for  well-doing 
through  the  Right  Faith.  Setting 
up  the  standard  of  the  eight  car¬ 
dinal  virtues.  He  purged  away  the 
dust  from  human  nature  and  per¬ 
fected  a  true  character.  Widely 
opening  the  Three  Constant 
Gates,  He  brought  Life  to  light 
and  abolished  Death.  Hanging 
up  the  bright  Sun,  He  swept  away 
the  abodes  of  darkness.  All  the 
evil  devices  of  the  devil  were 
thereupon  defeated  and  destroyed. 
He  then  took  an  oar  in  the  Vessel 
of  Mercy  and  ascended  to  the 
Palace  of  Light.  Thereby  all  ra¬ 
tional  beings  were  conveyed  across 
the  Gulf.  His  mighty  work  being 
thus  completed,  He  returned  at 
noon  to  His  original  position 


THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


163 


out  distinction.  As  they  strike 
the  wood,  the  fame  of  their 
benevolence  is  diffused  abroad; 
worshiping  toward  the  east,  they 
hasten  on  the  way  to  life  and 
glory;  they  preserve  the  beard  to 
symbolize  their  outward  actions, 
they  shave  the  crown  to  indicate 
the  absence  of  inward  affections; 
they  do  not  keep  slaves,  but  put 
noble  and  mean  all  on  an  equality ; 
they  do  not  amass  wealth,  but  cast 
all  their  property  into  the  com¬ 
mon  stock;  they  fast,  in  order  to 
perfect  themselves  by  self-inspec¬ 
tion;  they  submit  to  restraints,  in 
order  to  strengthen  themselves  by 
silent  watchfulness ;  seven  times  a 
day  they  have  worship  and  praise 
for  the  benefit  of  the  living  and 
the  dead;  once  in  seven  days  they 
sacrifice,  to  cleanse  the  heart  and 
return  to  purity. 

It  is  difficult  to  find  a  name  to 
express  the  excellence  of  the  true 
and  unchangeable  doctrine ;  but  as 
its  meritorious  operations  are 
manifestly  displayed,  by  accom¬ 
modation  it  is  named  the  Illus¬ 
trious  Religion. 


(in  Heaven)1.  The  twenty-seven 
standard  works  of  His  Sutras 
were  preserved.  The  great  means 
of  Conversion  (or  leavening,  i.  e. 
transformation)  were  widely  ex¬ 
tended,  and  the  sealed  Gate  of  the 
Blessed  Life  was  unlocked.  His 
Law  is  to  bathe  with  water  and 
with  the  Spirit,  and  thus  to 
cleanse  from  all  vain  delusions 
and  to  purify  men  until  they  re¬ 
gain  the  whiteness  of  their  nature. 

(His  ministers)  carry  the  Cross 
with  them  as  a  Sign.  They  travel 
about  wherever  the  sun  shines, 
and  try  to  re-unite  those  that  are 
beyond  the  pale  (i.  e.  those  that 
are  lost).  Striking  the  wood,  they 
proclaim  the  Glad  Tidings  (lit. 
joyful  sounds)  of  Love  and  Char¬ 
ity.  They  turn  ceremoniously  to 
the  East,  and  hasten  in  the  Path 
of  Life  and  Glory.  They  preserve 
the  beard  to  show  that  they  have 
outward  works  to  do,  whilst  they 
shave  the  crown  (tonsure)  to  re¬ 
mind  themselves  that  they  have  no 
private  selfish  desires.  They  keep 
neither  male  nor  female  slaves. 
Putting  all  men  on  an  equality, 
they  make  no  distinction  between 
the  noble  and  the  mean.  They 
neither  accumulate  property  nor 
wealth;  but  giving  all  they  pos- 


164 


MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


Now  without  holy  men,  prin¬ 
ciples  cannot  become  expanded; 
without  principles,  holy  men  can¬ 
not  become  magnified;  but  with 
holy  men  and  right  principles, 
united  as  the  two  parts  of  a 
signet,  the  world  becomes  civil¬ 
ized  and  enlightened. 

In  the  time  of  the  accomplished 


sess,  they  set  a  good  example  to 
others.  They  observe  fasting  in 
order  that  they  may  subdue  “the 
knowledge”  (which  defiles  the 
mind).  They  keep  the  vigil  of 
silence  and  watchfulness  so  that 
they  may  observe  “the  Precepts.” 
Seven  times  a  day  they  meet  for 
worship  and  praise,  and  earnestly 
they  offer  prayers  for  the  living 
as  well  as  for  the  dead.  Once  in 
seven  days,  they  have  “a  sacrifice 
without  the  animal”  (i.  e.  a  blood¬ 
less  sacrifice).  Thus  cleansing 
their  hearts,  they  regain  their  pur¬ 
ity.  This  ever  True  and  Un¬ 
changing  Way  is  mysterious,  and 
is  almost  impossible  to  name.  But 
its  meritorious  operations  are  so 
brilliantly  manifested  that  we 
make  an  effort  and  call  it  by 
the  name  of  “The  Luminous 
Religion.” 

But,  at  any  rate,  “The  Way” 
would  not  have  spread  so  widely 
had  it  not  been  for  the  Sage,  and 
the  Sage  would  not  have  been  so 
great  were  it  not  for  “The  Way  ” 
Ever  since  the  Sage  and  “The 
Way ”  were  united  together  as  the 
two  halves  of  an  indentured  deed 
would  agree,  then  the  world  be¬ 
came  refined  and  enlightened. 

When  the  accomplished  Em- 


THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


165 


Emperor  Taitsung,  the  illustrious 
and  magnificent  founder  of  the 
dynasty,  among  the  enlightened 
and  holy  men  who  arrived  was 
the  Most-virtuous  Olopun,  from 
the  country  of  Syria.  Observ¬ 
ing  the  azure  clouds,  he  bore  the 
true  sacred  books;  beholding  the 
direction  of  the  winds,  he  braved 
difficulties  and  dangers.  In  the 
year  a.  d.  635  he  arrived  at 
Chang-an;  the  Emperor  sent  his 
Prime  Minister,  Duke  Fang 
Hiuen-ling;  who,  carrying  the  of¬ 
ficial  staff  to  the  west  border,  con¬ 
ducted  his  guest  into  the  interior; 
the  sacred  books  were  translated 
in  the  imperial  library,  the  sover¬ 
eign  investigated  the  subject  in 
his  private  apartments;  when  be¬ 
coming  deeply  impressed  with  the 
rectitude  and  truth  of  the  relig¬ 
ion,  he  gave  special  orders  for  its 
dissemination.  In  the  seventh 
month  of  the  year  a.  d.  638  the 
following  imperial  proclamation 
was  issued: 

‘‘Right  principles  have  no  in¬ 
variable  name,  holy  men  have  no 
invariable  station;  instruction  is 
established  in  accordance  with  the 
locality,  with  the  object  of  bene¬ 
fiting  the  people  at  large.  The 
Greatly-virtuous  Olopun,  of  the 


peror  T’ai-Tsung  (627-649  a.  d.) 
began  his  magnificent  career  in 
glory  and  splendour  over  the  (re¬ 
cently)  established  dynasty  and 
ruled  his  people  with  intelligence, 
he  proved  himself  to  be  a  brilliant 
Sage. 

And  behold  there  was  a  highly 
virtuous  man  named  A-lo-pen  in 
the  Kingdom  of  Ta-ch’in.  Augur¬ 
ing  (of  the  Sage,  i.  e.  Emperor) 
from  the  azure  sky,  he  decided  to 
carry  the  true  Sutras  (of  the  True 
Way)  with  him,  and  observing  the 
course  of  the  winds,  he  made  his 
way  (to  China)  through  difficul¬ 
ties  and  perils.  Thus  in  the  Ninth 
year  of  the  period  named  Cheng- 
kuan  (635  a.  d.)  he  arrived  at 
Ch’ang-an.  The  Emperor  des¬ 
patched  his  Minister,  Duke  Fang 
Hsiian-ling,  with  a  guard  of  hon¬ 
our,  to  the  western  suburb  to 
meet  the  visitor  and  conduct  him 
to  the  Palace.  The  Sutras  (Scrip¬ 
tures)  were  translated  in  the  Im¬ 
perial  Library.  (His  Majesty) 
investigated  “The  Way”  in  his 
own  Forbidden  apartments,  and 
being  deeply  convinced  of  its  cor¬ 
rectness  and  truth,  he  gave  spe¬ 
cial  orders  for  its  propagation. 

In  the  Twelfth  year  of  the 
Cheng-kuan  period  (a.  d.  638)  in 


166 


MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


kingdom  of  Syria,  has  brought  his 
sacred  books  and  images  from 
that  distant  part,  and  has  pre¬ 
sented  them  at  our  chief  capital. 
Having  examined  the  principles 
of  this  religion,  we  find  them 
to  be  purely  excellent  and  nat¬ 
ural;  investigating  its  originating 
source,  we  find  it  has  taken  its 
rise  from  the  establishment  of 
important  truths ;  its  ritual  is  free 
from  perplexing  expressions,  its 
principles  will  survive  when  the 
framework  is  forgot;  it  is  benefi¬ 
cial  to  all  creatures;  it  is  advan¬ 
tageous  to  mankind.  Let  it  be 
published  throughout  the  Empire, 
and  let  the  proper  authority  build 
a  Syrian  church  in  the  capital  in 
the  I-ning  May,  which  shall  be 
governed  by  twenty-one  priests. 
When  the  virtue  of  the  Chau  dy¬ 
nasty  declined,  the  rider  on  the 
azure  ox  ascended  to  the  west; 
the  principles  of  the  great  Tang 
becoming  resplendent  the  Illus¬ 
trious  breezes  have  come  to  fan 
the  East.** 


the  Seventh  month  of  Autumn, 
the  following  Imperial  Rescript 
was  issued: — 

“  ‘The  Way *  had  not,  at  all 
times  and  in  all  places,  the  self¬ 
same  name;  the  Sage  had  not,  at 
all  times  and  in  all  places,  the 
selfsame  human  body.  (Heaven) 
caused  a  suitable  religion  to  be 
instituted  for  every  region  and 
clime  so  that  each  one  of  the 
races  of  mankind  might  be  saved. 
Bishop  A-lo-pen  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Ta-ch’in,  bringing  with  him  the 
Sutras  and  Images,  has  come 
from  afar  and  presented  them  at 
our  Capital.  Having  carefully 
examined  the  scope  of  his  teach¬ 
ing,  we  find  it  to  be  mysteriously 
spiritual,  and  of  silent  operation. 
Having  observed  its  principal  and 
most  essential  points,  we  reached 
the  conclusion  that  they  cover  all 
that  is  most  important  in  life. 
Their  language  is  free  from  per¬ 
plexing  expressions ;  their  prin¬ 
ciples  are  so  simple  that  they 
‘remain  as  the  fish  would  remain 
even  after  the  net  (of  the  lan¬ 
guage)  were  forgotten.’  This 
Teaching  is  helpful  to  all  crea¬ 
tures  and  beneficial  to  all  men. 
So  let  it  have  free  course 
throughout  the  Empire/* 


THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


167 


Orders  were  then  issued  to  the 
authorities  to  have  a  true  portrait 
of  the  Emperor  taken;  when  it 
was  transferred  to  the  wall  of  the 
church,  the  dazzling  splendour  of 
the  celestial  visage  irradiated  the 
Illustrious  portals.  The  sacred 
traces  emitted  a  felicitous  influ¬ 
ence,  and  shed  a  perpetual  splen¬ 
dour  over  the  holy  precincts.  Ac¬ 
cording  to  the  Illustrated  Memoir 
of  the  Western  Regions,  and  the 
historical  books  of  the  Han  and 
Wei  dynasties,  the  kingdom  of 
Syria  reaches  south  to  the  Coral 
Sea;  on  the  north  it  joins  the 
Gem  Mountains;  on  the  west  it 
extends  toward  the  borders  of  the 
immortals  and  the  flowery  for- 


Accordingly,  the  proper  au¬ 
thorities  built  a  Ta-ch’in  mon¬ 
astery  in  the  I-ning  Ward  in  the 
Capital  and  twenty-one  priests 
were  ordained  and  attached  to  it. 
The  virtue  of  the  honoured  House 
of  Chou  had  died  away;  the 
(rider  on)  the  black  chariot  had 
ascended  to  the  west.  But  Virtue 
revived  and  was  manifested  again 
at  the  moment  when  the  Great 
T’ang  (Dynasty)  began  its  rule, 
whilst  the  breezes  of  the  Lumi¬ 
nous  (Religion)  came  eastward  to 
fan  it. 

Immediately  afterwards,  the 
proper  officials  were  again  or¬ 
dered  to  take  a  faithful  portrait 
of  the  Emperor,  and  to  have  it 
copied  on  the  walls  of  the  mon¬ 
astery.  The  celestial  beauty  ap¬ 
peared  in  its  variegated  colours, 
and  the  dazzling  splendour  il¬ 
luminated  the  Luminous  “portals” 
(i.  e.  congregation).  The  sacred 
features  (thus  preserved)  con¬ 
ferred  great  blessing  (on  the 
monastery),  and  illuminated  the 
Church  for  evermore. 

According  to  the  descriptive 
Records  of  the  Western  Lands 
and  the  historical  works  of  the 
Han  and  Wei  dynasties,  the  King¬ 
dom  of  Ta-ch’in  is  bounded  on  the 


168 


MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


ests;  on  the  east  it  lies  open  to 
the  violent  winds  and  tideless 
waters.  The  country  produces 
fire-proof  cloth,  life-restoring  in¬ 
cense,  bright  moon-pearls,  and 
night-lustre  gems.  Brigands  and 
robbers  are  unknown,  but  the  peo¬ 
ple  enjoy  happiness  and  peace. 
None  but  the  Illustrious  laws  pre¬ 
vail;  none  but  the  virtuous  are 
raised  to  sovereign  power.  The 
land  is  broad  and  ample,  and  its 
literary  productions  are  perspic¬ 
uous  and  clear. 


The  Emperor  Kautsung  re¬ 
spectfully  succeeded  his  ancestor, 
and  was  still  more  beneficent  to¬ 
ward  the  institution  of  truth.  In 
every  province  he  caused  Illus¬ 
trious  churches  to  be  erected,  and 
ratified  the  honour  conferred  upon 
Olopun,  making  him  the  great 
conservator  of  doctrine  for  the 
preservation  of  the  State.  While 
this  doctrine  pervaded  every 
channel,  the  State  became  en- 


south  by  the  Coral  Sea,  and 
reaches  on  the  north  to  the  Moun¬ 
tain  of  all  Precious  Things;  on 
the  west  it  looks  toward  the  Gar¬ 
dens  of  the  Immortals  and  the 
Flowery  Forests.  On  the  east  it 
lies  open  to  the  Long  Winds  and 
the  Weak  Waters.  The  country 
produces  asbestos  cloth,  the  soul¬ 
restoring  incense,  the  bright-moon 
pearls,  and  night-shining  gems. 
Robberies  and  thefts  are  unknown 
among  the  common  people,  whilst 
every  man  enjoys  happiness  and 
peace.  None  but  the  Luminous 
teachings  prevail;  none  but  virtu¬ 
ous  rulers  are  raised  to  the  SOV7 
ereign  power.  The  territory  is  of 
vast  extent;  and  its  refined  laws 
and  institutions,  as  well  as  accom¬ 
plished  manners  and  customs,  are 
gloriously  brilliant. 

The  great  Emperor  Kao-Tsung 
(650-683  a.  d.)  succeeded  most 
respectfully  to  his  ancestors;  and 
giving  the  True  Religion  the 
proper  elegance  and  finish,  he 
caused  monasteries  of  the  Lumi¬ 
nous  Religion  to  be  founded  in 
every  prefecture.  Accordingly, 
be  honoured  A-lo-pen  by  con¬ 
ferring  on  him  the  office  of  the 
Great  Patron  and  Spiritual  Lord 
of  the  Empire.  The  Law  (of 


THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


169 


riched  and  tranquility  abounded. 
Every  city  was  full  of  churches, 
and  the  royal  family  enjoyed 
lustre  and  happiness.  In  the 
year  a.  d.  699  the  Buddhists, 
gaining  power,  raised  their  voices 
in  the  eastern  metropolis;  in  the 
year  a.  d.  713,  some  low  fellows 
excited  ridicule  and  spread  slan¬ 
ders  in  the  western  capital.  At 
that  time  there  was  the  chief 
priest  Lohan,  the  Greatly-virtuous 
Kie-leih,  and  others  of  noble  es¬ 
tate  from  the  golden  regions, 
lofty-minded  priests,  having  aban¬ 
doned  all  worldly  interests;  who 
unitedly  maintained  the  grand 
principles  and  preserved  them 
entire  to  the  end. 


The  high-principled  Emperor 
Hiuentsung  caused  the  Prince  of 
Ning  and  others,  five  princes  in 
all,  personally  to  visit  the  felici- 


the  Luminous  Religion)  spread 
throughout  the  ten  provinces,  and 
the  Empire  enjoyed  great  peace 
and  concord.  Monasteries  were 
built  in  many  cities,  whilst  every 
family  enjoyed  the  great  bless¬ 
ings  (of  Salvation). 

During  the  period  of  Sheng-li 
(698-699  a.  d.),  the  Buddhists, 
taking  advantage  of  these  circum¬ 
stances,  exercised  a  great  influ¬ 
ence  (over  the  Empress  Wu)  and 
raised  their  voices  (against  the 
Luminous  Religion)  in  the  East¬ 
ern  Chou,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
Hsien-t’ien  period  (712  a.  d.) 
some  inferior  (Taoist)  scholars 
ridiculed  and  derided  it,  slander¬ 
ing  and  speaking  against  it  in  the 
Western  Hao.  But  there  came 
the  Head-priest  (or  Archdeacon) 
Lo-han,  Bishop  Chi-lieh  and 
others,  as  well  as  Noblemen  from 
the  “Golden”  region  and  the  emi¬ 
nent  priests  who  had  forsaken  all 
worldly  interests.  All  these  men 
co-operated  in  restoring  the  great 
fundamental  principles  and  united 
together  to  re-bind  the  broken 
ties. 

The  Emperor  Hsiian-Tsung 
(712-755  a.  d.),  who  was  sur- 
named  “the  Perfection  of  the 
Way,”  ordered  the  Royal  prince, 


170 


MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


toils  edifice ;  he  established  the 
place  of  worship;  he  restored  the 
consecrated  timbers  which  had 
been  temporarily  thrown  down ; 
and  re-erected  the  sacred  stones 
which  for  a  time  had  been 
desecrated. 

In  74<2  orders  were  given  to  the 
great  general  Kau  Lih-sz’,  to  send 
the  five  sacred  portraits  and  have 
them  placed  in  the  church,  and  a 
gift  of  a  hundred  pieces  of  silk 
accompanied  these  pictures  of  in¬ 
telligence.  Although  the  dragon’s 
beard  was  then  remote,  their  bows 
and  swords  were  still  within 
reach;  while  the  solar  horns  sent 
forth  their  rays,  and  celestial  vis¬ 
ages  seemed  close  at  hand. 


the  King  of  Ning-Kuo,  and  four 
other  Royal  princes  to  visit  the 
blessed  edifices  (i.  e.  monastery) 
personally  and  to  set  up  altars 
therein.  Thus  the  “consecrated 
rafters”  which  had  been  tempo¬ 
rarily  bent,  were  once  more 
straightened  and  strengthened, 
whilst  the  sacred  foundation- 
stones  which  for  a  time  had  lost 
the  right  position  were  restored 
and  perfected.  In  the  early  part 
of  the  period  T’ien-pao  (742 
a.  d.),  he  gave  orders  to  his  gen¬ 
eral  Kao  Li-shih  to  carry  the 
faithful  portraits  of  the  Five  Em¬ 
perors  and  to  have  them  placed 
securely  in  the  monastery,  and 
also  to  take  the  Imperial  gift  of 
one  hundred  pieces  of  silk  with 
him,  making  the  most  courteous 
and  reverent  obeisance  to  the  Im¬ 
perial  portraits.  We  feel  as 
though  “we  were  in  a  position  to 
hang  on  to  the  Imperial  bow  and 
sword,  in  case  the  beard  of  the 
Dragon  should  be  out  of  reach.” 
Although  the  solar  horns  (i.  e.  the 
August  and  Majestic  Visages) 
shine  forth  with  such  dazzling 
brilliance,  yet  the  gracious  Im¬ 
perial  faces  are  so  gentle  that 
they  may  be  gazed  upon  at  a 
distance  less  than  a  foot. 


THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


171 


In  744  the  priest  Kih-ho,  in  the 
kingdom  of  Syria,  looking  toward 
the  star  (of  China),  was  attracted 
by  its  transforming  influence,  and 
observing  the  sun  (i.  e.,  Em¬ 
peror),  came  to  pay  court  to  the 
most  honourable.  The  Emperor 
commanded  the  priest  Lo-han,  the 
priest  Pu-lun,  and  others,  seven  in 
all,  together  with  the  Greatly- 
virtuous  Kih-ho,  to  perform  a 
service  of  merit  in  the  Hing-king 
palace.  Thereupon  the  Emperor 
composed  mottoes  for  the  sides  of 
the  church,  and  the  tablets  were 
graced  with  the  royal  inscrip¬ 
tions  ;  the  accumulated  gems 
emitted  their  effulgence,  while 
their  sparkling  brightness  vied 
with  the  ruby  clouds;  the  tran¬ 
scripts  of  intelligence  suspended 
in  the  void  shot  forth  their 
rays  as  reflected  by  the  sun;  the 
bountiful  gifts  exceeded  the 
height  of  the  southern  hills;  the 
bedewing  favours  were  deep  as 
the  eastern  sea.  Nothing  is  be¬ 
yond  the  range  of  the  right  prin¬ 
ciple,  and  what  is  permissible  may 
be  identified;  nothing  is  beyond 
the  power  of  the  holy  man,  and 
that  which  is  practicable  may  be 
related. 


In  the  third  year  of  the  same 
period  (744  a.  d.)  there  was  a 
priest  named  Chi-ho  in  the  King¬ 
dom  of  Ta-ch’in.  Observing  the 
stars,  he  decided  to  engage  in  the 
work  of  Conversion  (lit.  trans¬ 
forming  influence) ;  and  looking 
toward  the  sun  (i.  e.  eastward), 
he  came  to  pay  court  to  the  most 
honourable  (the  Emperor).  The 
Imperial  orders  were  given  to  the 
Head-priest  (Archdeacon)  Lo- 
han,  priest  P’u-lun  and  others, 
seven  in  all,  to  perform  services 
to  cultivate  merit  and  virtue  with 
this  Bishop  Chi-ho  in  the  Hsing- 
ch’ing  Palace.  Thereupon  the 
monastery-names,  composed  and 
written  by  the  Emperor  himself, 
began  to  appear  on  the  monastery 
gates;  and  the  front-tablets  to 
bear  the  Dragon-writing  (i.  e. 
the  Imperial  hand-writing).  The 
monastery  was  resorted  to  by 
(visitors)  whose  costumes  re¬ 
sembled  the  shining  feathers  of 
the  king-fisher  bird  whilst  all  (the 
buildings)  shone  forth  with  the 
splendour  of  the  sun.  The  Im¬ 
perial  tablets  hung  high  in  the 
air  and  their  radiance  flamed  as 
though  vying  with  the  sun.  The 
gifts  of  Imperial  favour  are  im¬ 
mense  like  the  highest  peak  of  the 


172 


MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


The  accomplished  and  en¬ 
lightened  Emperor  Suhtsung  re¬ 
built  the  Illustrious  churches  in 
Ling-wu  and  four  other  places; 
great  benefits  were  conferred, 
and  felicity  began  to  increase; 
great  munificence  was  displayed, 
and  the  imperial  State  became 
established. 

The  accomplished  and  military 
Emperor  Taitsung  magnified  the 
sacred  succession,  and  honoured 
the  latent  principle  of  nature;  al¬ 
ways,  on  the  incarnation-day,  he 
bestowed  celestial  incense,  and 
ordered  the  performance  of  a 
service  of  merit;  he  distributed  of 
the  imperial  viands,  in  order  to 


highest  mountains  in  the  South, 
and  the  flood  of  its  rich  benevo¬ 
lence  is  as  deep  as  the  depths  of 
the  Eastern  sea. 

There  is  nothing  which  “The 
Way”  cannot  effect  through  the 
Sage;  and  whatever  it  effects, 
it  is  right  for  us  to  define  it  as 
such  an  eulogy.  There  is  nothing 
which  the  Sage  cannot  accomplish 
through  “The  Way ”;  and  what¬ 
ever  He  accomplishes,  it  is  right 
we  should  proclaim  it  in  writing 
(as  the  Sage’s  work). 

The  Emperor  Su-Tsung  (756- 
762  a.  d.),  the  Accomplished  and 
Enlightened,  rebuilt  the  monas¬ 
teries  of  the  Luminous  (Religion) 
in  Ling-wu,  and  four  other  coun¬ 
ties.  The  great  Good  Spirit  con¬ 
tinued  to  assist  him  and  the  happy 
reign  began  anew.  Great  bless¬ 
ings  were  given  (to  him  and  his 
people)  and  the  Imperial  inher¬ 
itance  was  made  secure. 

The  Emperor  Tai-Tsung  (763- 
779  a.  d.),  the  Accomplished  and 
Martial,  greatly  magnified  the 
sacred  Throne  to  which  he  suc¬ 
ceeded.  He  observed  the  rule  of 
non-assertion  and  walked  in  The 
Way  of  the  Silent-operation. 
Every  year  when  the  (Emperor’s) 
birthday  recurred,  he  bestowed 


THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


173 


shed  a  glory  on  the  Illustrious 
Congregation.  Heaven  is  munifi¬ 
cent  in  the  dissemination  of  bless¬ 
ings,  whereby  the  benefits  of  life 
are  extended ;  the  holy  man  em¬ 
bodies  the  original  principle  of 
virtue,  whence  he  is  able  to  coun¬ 
teract  noxious  influences* 


Our  sacred  and  sage-like,  ac¬ 
complished  and  military  Emperor 
Kienchung  appointed  the  eight 
branches  of  government,  accord¬ 
ing  to  which  he  advanced  or  de¬ 
graded  the  intelligent  and  dull ; 
he  opened  up  the  nine  categories, 
by  means  of  which  he  renovated 
the  illustrious  decrees ;  his  trans¬ 
forming  influence  pervaded  the 
most  abstruse  principles,  while 
openness  of  heart  distinguished 
his  devotions.  Thus,  by  correct 
and  enlarged  purity  of  principle, 
and  undeviating  consistency  in 
sympathy  with  others ;  by  ex¬ 
tended  commiseration  rescuing 
multitudes  from  misery,  while 
disseminating  blessings  on  all 
around,  the  cultivation  of  our 


celestial  incense  (on  the  priests) 
wherewith  to  report  (to  Heaven) 
the  meritorious  deeds  accom¬ 
plished  by  him.  Pie  distributed 
provisions  from  his  own  table  and 
thereby  gladdened  the  congrega¬ 
tion  of  the  Luminous  Religion. 
Moreever,  Heaven  blessed  him 
with  great  blessings,  and  what  he 
did  cannot  but  reach  far  and 
wide.  As  the  Sage  is  the  Embodi¬ 
ment  of  the  Original  Way  of 
Heaven,  he  completes  and  nour¬ 
ishes  the  objects  of  his  favours. 

Our  present  Emperor  (who 
named  the  present  period  “Chien- 
chung”  when  he  ascended  the 
throne  in  780  a.  d.)  is  most  sacred 
and  august  alike  in  the  works  of 
Peace  and  War.  He  developed 
the  “Eight”  (objects)  of  Govern¬ 
ment,  and  degraded  the  unworthy 
whilst  he  promoted  the  deserving. 
He  exhibited  the  “Nine  divisions” 
of  the  grand  scheme  of  Imperial 
government ;  and  thus  imparted 
new  life  and  vigour  to  his  own  Il¬ 
lustrious  Mission.  Conversion  (i. 
e.  the  transforming  influence) 
leads  (the  people)  to  the  under¬ 
standing  of  the  most  mysterious 
Principles.  There  is  nothing  to 
hinder  us  from  offering  our 
thanksgiving  prayers  for  him. 


174 


MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


doctrine  gained  a  grand  basis, 
and  by  gradual  advances  its  in¬ 
fluence  was  diffused.  If  the  winds 
and  rains  are  seasonable,  the 
world  will  be  at  rest;  men  will  be 
guided  by  principle,  inferior  ob¬ 
jects  will  be  pure;  the  living  will 
be  at  ease,  and  the  dead  will  re¬ 
joice;  the  thoughts  will  produce 
their  appropriate  response,  the 
affections  will  be  free,  and  the 
eyes  will  be  sincere;  such  is  the 
laudable  condition  which  we  of 
the  Illustrious  Religion  are 
labouring  to  attain. 


Our  great  benefactor,  the 
Imperially-conferred-purple-gown 
priest,  I-sz’,  titular  Great  States¬ 
man  of  the  Banqueting-house, 
Associated  Secondary  Military 
Commissioner  for  the  Northern 


That  those  who  are  noble  and 
exalted  mav  behave  humble-mind- 
edlv;  that  those  who  are  devoted 
to  the  Perfect  Stillness  may  also 
be  sympathetic  and  lenient  to 
others;  and  that  they  may  thus 
seek,  with  boundless  mercy,  to  re¬ 
lieve  the  sufferings  of  all,  and 
with  unselfish  benevolence  extend 
their  helping  hand  to  all  mankind, 
these  are  our  great  plans  for  daily 
discipline  and  training,  and  grad¬ 
ual  elevation  of  our  life.  Further¬ 
more,  in  order  that  the  winds  and 
rains  may  come  in  their  due  sea¬ 
son;  that  peace  and  tranquillity 
may  prevail  throughout  the  Em¬ 
pire  ;  that  all  men  may  act  reason¬ 
ably;  that  all  things  may  remain 
undefiled ;  that  the  living  may 
flourish,  and  those  who  are  dead 
(or  dying)  may  have  joy;  that 
the  words  of  the  mouth  may  be  in 
tune  with  their  inmost  thought  as 
the  echo  follows  the  sound: — all 
these  are  the  meritorious  fruits  of 
the  power  and  operation  of  our 
Luminous  Religion. 

Our  great  Donor,  the  priest 
I-ssu  who  had  the  title  of  Kuang- 
lu-ta-fu  (i.  e.  one  of  the  highest 
titles  conferred  on  an  officer), 
with  the  decoration-rank  of  the 
Gold  (signet)  and  the  Purple 


THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


175 


Region,  and  Examination-palace 
Overseer,  was  naturally  mild  and 
graciously  disposed ;  his  mind  sus¬ 
ceptible  of  sound  doctrine,  he  was 
diligent  in  the  performance;  from 
the  distant  city  of  Raj  agriha,  he 
came  to  visit  China ;  his  principles 
more  lofty  than  those  of  the  three 
dynasties,  his  practice  was  per¬ 
fect  in  every  department;  at  first 
he  applied  himself  to  duties  per¬ 
taining  to  the  palace,  eventually 
his  name  was  inscribed  on  the 
military  roll.  When  the  Duke 
Koh  Tsz’-f,  Secondary  Minister  of 
State  and  Prince  of  Fan-yang,  at 
first  conducted  the  military  in  the 
northern  region,  the  Emperor 
Suhtsung  made  him  (I-sz’)  his  at¬ 
tendant  on  his  travels;  although 
he  was  a  private  chamberlain,  he 
assumed  no  distinction  on  the 
march;  he  was  as  claws  and  teeth 
to  the  duke,  and  in  rousing  the 
military  he  was  as  ears  and  eyes; 
he  distributed  the  wealth  con¬ 
ferred  upon  him,  not  accumulating 
treasure  for  his  private  use;  he 
made  offerings  of  the  jewelry 
which  had  been  given  by  imperial 
favour,  he  spread  out  a  golden 
carpet  for  devotion;  now  he  re¬ 
paired  the  old  churches,  anon  he 
increased  the  number  of  religious 


Robe,  and  who  was  also  the  Lieu¬ 
tenant-Governor-General  of  the 
Northern  Region,  and  the  Assist¬ 
ant  Over-Seer  of  the  Examination 
Hall,  was  honoured  with  the  pur¬ 
ple  clerical  robe.  He  was  mild  in 
his  nature  and  was  naturally  dis¬ 
posed  to  charity !  Ever  since  he 
heard  of  “The  Way,”  he  endeav¬ 
oured  to  practise  it.  From  afar, 
from  the  “City  of  the  Royal 
Palace/ ’  he  finally  came  to  the 
Middle  Kingdom,  which  in  the  ad¬ 
vancement  of  learning  now  almost 
surpasses  the  Three  Dynasties, 
and  enjoys  the  full  development 
of  knowledge  and  skill  in  all  the 
Arts.  First  performing  certain 
faithful  services  to  (the  one  who 
dwells  in)  the  “Red  Court,”  he 
finally  inscribed  his  name  in  the 
Imperial  book  (i.  e.  thus  pledging 
himself  to  be  a  loyal  subject). 

When  the  Duke  Kuo  Tzu-i,  a 
Secretary  of  State  and  Viceroy  of 
the  Fen-yang  Province,  was  first 
appointed  to  the  charge  of  the 
military  operations  in  the  North¬ 
ern  Regions  (750  a.  d.)  the  Em¬ 
peror  Su-Tsung  ordered  him 
(I-ssu)  to  accompany  the  Duke  to 
his  command.  Although  so  inti¬ 
mate  with  the  Duke  as  to  be  ad¬ 
mitted  into  his  sleeping-tent,  yet 


176 


MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


establishments;  he  honoured  and 
decorated  the  various  edifices,  till 
they  resembled  the  plumage  of  the 
pheasant  in  its  flight;  moreover, 
practising  the  discipline  of  the  Il¬ 
lustrious  Religion,  he  distributed 
his  riches  in  deeds  of  benevo¬ 
lence  ;  every  year  he  assembled 
those  in  the  sacred  office  from 
four  churches,  and  respectfully 
engaged  them  for  fifty  days  in 
purification  and  preparation;  the 
naked  came  and  were  clothed;  the 
sick  were  attended  to  and  re¬ 
stored;  the  dead  were  buried  in 
repose ;  even  among  the  most  pure 
and  self-denying  of  the  Budd¬ 
hists,  such  excellence  was  never 
heard  of ;  the  white-clad  members 
of  the  Illustrious  Congregation, 
now  considering  these  men,  have 
desired  to  engrave  a  broad  tablet, 
in  order  to  set  forth  a  eulogy  of 
their  magnanimous  deeds. 


so  strictly  and  respectfully  did  he 
(I-ssu)  behave  that  he  made  no 
difference  between  himself  and 
others  on  the  march.  He  proved 
himself  to  be  ‘‘claw  and  tusk”  to 
the  Duke;  and  “ear  and  eye”  to 
the  Army. 

He  distributed  all  his  salary  as 
well  as  the  gifts  conferred  on  him, 
and  did  not  accumulate  wealth  for 
himself  and  for  his  own  family. 
He  made  offerings  (to  the  monas¬ 
tery)  of  the  Sphatika  (i.  e.  crys¬ 
tal)  which  had  been  granted  to 
him  by  the  Emperor  himself,  and 
dedicated  to  the  monastery  the 
gold-interwoven  carpets  which 
(despite  his  humble  refusal)  had 
been  given  to  him  by  the  Emper¬ 
or’s  own  favour.  He  also  restored 
the  old  monasteries  to  their  former 
condition,  whilst  he  enlarged  the 
worship-halls  afresh.  The  corri¬ 
dors  and  walls  were  nobly  orna¬ 
mented  and  elegantly  decorated; 
roofs  and  flying  eaves  with  col¬ 
oured  tiles  appeared  like  the  five- 
coloured  pheasant  on  the  wing. 

Still  further,  ever  since  he  took 
refuge  in  the  Luminous  Portals, 
he  spent  all  his  income  in  benevo¬ 
lent  deeds.  Every  year  he  as¬ 
sembled  the  priests  of  the  four 
monasteries  to  have  their  reverent 


THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


177 


services  and  earnest  offerings  of 
prayers  for  fifty  days.  The  hun¬ 
gry  came  to  be  fed;  the  naked 
came  to  be  clothed;  the  sick  were 
cured  and  restored  to  health;  the 
dead  were  buried  and  made  to  rest 
in  peace.  Among  the  purest  and 
most  self-denying  Dasa  (i.  e. 
man-servants)  of  the  Lord  such 
excellent  examples  were  never 
heard  of ;  but  we  see  this  very  man 
amongst  the  white-robed  scholars 
of  the  Luminous  Religion ! 

To  the  glory  of  God  for  all 
these  eminent  and  meritorious 
events  (above  described),  we  en¬ 
grave  the  following  Eulogy  on 
this  great  Monument. 


The  true  Lord  is  without  origin. 

Profound,  invisible,  and  un¬ 
changeable  ; 

With  power  and  capacity  to  per¬ 
fect  and  transform. 

He  raised  up  the  earth  and  estab¬ 
lished  the  heavens. 

Divided  in  nature,  he  entered  the 
world, 

To  save  and  to  help  without 
bounds ; 

The  sun  arose,  and  darkness  was 
dispelled. 


ODE. 

It  is  the  true  Lord  who  was 
Uncreated, 

And  was  ever  profoundly  firm  and 
unchangeable. 

He  created  the  Universe  after 
His  own  plan. 

And  raised  the  Earth  and  framed 
the  Heaven. 

Dividing  His  God-head,  He  took 
human  form 

And  through  Him,  Salvation  was 
made  free  to  all. 

The  Sun  arising,  the  darkness 
was  ended. 


178 


MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


All  bearing  witness  to  his  true 
original. 

The  glorious  and  resplendent,  ac¬ 
complished  Emperor, 

Whose  principles  embraced  those 
of  preceding  monarchs, 

Taking  advantage  of  the  occasion, 
suppressed  turbulence; 

Heaven  was  spread  out  and  the 
earth  was  enlarged. 

When  the  pure,  bright  Illustrious 
Religion 

Was  introduced  to  our  Tang 
dynasty. 

The  Scriptures  were  translated, 
and  churches  built. 

And  the  vessel  set  in  motion  for 
the  living  and  the  dead; 

Every  kind  of  blessing  was  then 
obtained. 

And  all  the  kingdoms  enjoyed  a 
state  of  peace. 

When  Kautsung  succeeded  to  his 
ancestral  estate. 

He  rebuilt  the  edifices  of  pur¬ 
ity; 

Palaces  of  concord,  large  and 
light, 

Covered  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  land. 


All  these  facts  prove  that  He  is 
the  True  Mystery. 

The  most  Glorious  and  Accom¬ 
plished  Sovereign 

Surpassed  all  His  predecessors  in 
upholding  “The  Way  ” 

Taking  Time  at  its  flood.  He  so 
settled  all  disorders 

That  Heaven  was  expanded  and 
Earth  widened. 

The  brightest  and  most  brilliant 
of  all  teachings — 

The  teaching  of  the  Luminous 
Religion — 

Took  root  deep  and  firm  in  our 
Land  of  T’ang. 

With  the  translation  of  the  Scrip¬ 
tures 

And  the  building  of  convents. 

We  see  the  living  and  the  dead  all 
sailing  in  one  Ship  of  Mercy; 

All  manner  of  blessings  arose,  and 
peace  and  plenty  abounded. 

Kao-Tsung  succeeded  to  the 
Throne  of  his  Fathers; 

He  re-built  the  edifices  for  Holy 
use. 

Palaces  of  Peace  and  Concord 
stood  resplendent  far  and 
near; 

The  rays  shining  from  them  filled 
every  part  of  the  Empire. 


THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


179 


The  true  doctrine  was  clearly  an¬ 
nounced, 

Overseers  of  the  church  were  ap¬ 
pointed  in  due  form; 

The  people  enjoyed  happiness 
and  peace, 

While  all  creatures  were  exempt 
from  calamity  and  distress. 

When  Hiuentsung  commenced  his 
sacred  career. 

He  applied  himself  to  the  cultiva¬ 
tion  of  truth  and  rectitude; 

His  imperial  tablets  shot  forth 
their  effulgence. 

And  the  celestial  writings  mutu¬ 
ally  reflected  their  splendours. 

The  imperial  domain  was  rich  and 
luxuriant, 

While  the  whole  land  rendered 
exalted  homage; 

Every  business  was  flourishing 
throughout, 

And  the  people  all  enjoyed  pros¬ 
perity. 

Then  came  Suhtsung,  who  com¬ 
menced  anew, 

And  celestial  dignity  marked  the 
imperial  movements. 

Sacred  as  the  moon’s  unsullied 
expanse, 


The  truths  of  “The  Way”  were 
made  clear  to  all  men. 

Setting  up  a  new  institution,  he 
created  “the  Lord  Spiritual”; 

And  every  man  enjoyed  most 
blessed  peace  and  joy. 

Whilst  the  land  saw  neither  pain 
nor  grief. 

When  Hsiian-Tsung  commenced 
his  glorious  career. 

With  might  and  main,  he  pursued 
the  Way  of  Truth. 

The  temple-names  written  by  the 
Emperor  shone  forth; 

The  tablets  of  the  celestial  hand¬ 
writing  reflected  gloriously. 

The  Imperial  Domain  was  embel¬ 
lished  and  studded  with  gems, 

While  the  least  and  the  remotest 
places  attained  the  highest 
virtue. 

All  sorts  of  works  undertaken  by 
the  people  flourished  through¬ 
out  the  land ; 

And  each  man  enjoyed  his  own 
prosperity. 

When  Su-Tsung  finally  was  re¬ 
stored  to  the  throne, 

The  Celestial  Dignity  guided  the 
Imperial  vehicle; 

At  length  the  sacred  Sun  sent 
forth  its  crystal  rays; 


180 


MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


While  felicity  was  wafted  like 
nocturnal  gales. 

Happiness  reverted  to  the  im¬ 
perial  household. 

The  autumnal  influences  were 
long  removed; 

Ebullitions  were  allayed,  and  ris¬ 
ings  suppressed, 

And  thus  our  dynasty  was  firmly 
built  up. 


Taitsung  the  filial  and  just 

Combined  in  virtue  with  heaven 
and  earth; 

By  his  liberal  bequests  the  living 
were  satisfied. 

And  property  formed  the  channel 
of  imparting  succour. 

By  fragrant  mementoes  he  re¬ 
warded  the  meritorious, 

With  benevolence  he  dispensed 
his  donations; 

The  solar  concave  appeared  in 
dignity. 

And  the  lunar  retreat  was  deco¬ 
rated  to  extreme. 


Felicitous  winds  blew,  and  the 
Darkness  fled; 

Thus  the  precious  Throne  was 
made  secure 

To  the  Imperial  family  of  the 
great  T’ang. 

The  causes  of  calamity  took  flight 
— never  to  return; 

Tumults  were  settled  and  men’s 
passions  subdued; 

The  ideals  of  the  Middle  King¬ 
dom  were  at  last  realized. 

Tai-Tsung  was  filial  to  his  par¬ 
ents  and  just  to  all. 

His  virtues  united  with  the  great 
Plans  of  the  Universe. 

By  his  unselfish  benevolence,  he 
helped  all  mankind. 

Whilst  the  greatest  blessings  were 
realized  in  the  abundance  of 
wealth  and  prosperity. 

By  burning  fragrant  incense,  he 
showed  his  gratitude; 

With  benevolence  he  distributed 
his  gifts  to  the  people. 

The  Empire  became  so  enlight¬ 
ened  as  though  the  glory  of 
the  Rising  Sun  in  the  East¬ 
ern  Valley 

And  the  full  Moon  in  her  secret 
cave  were  brought  together  as 


one. 


THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


181 


When  Kienchung  succeeded  to  the 
throne, 

He  began  the  cultivation  of  in¬ 
telligent  virtue; 

His  military  vigilance  extended 
to  the  four  seas. 

And  his  accomplished  purity  in¬ 
fluenced  all  lands. 

His  light  penetrated  the  secrecies 
of  men. 

And  to  him  the  diversities  of  ob¬ 
jects  were  seen  as  in  a  mirror; 

He  shed  a  vivifying  influence 
through  the  whole  realm  of 
nature. 

And  all  outer  nations  took  him 
for  example. 


The  true  doctrine  how  expansive ! 
Its  responses  are  minute; 

How  difficult  to  name  it! 

To  elucidate  the  three  in  one. 


When  our  present  Emperor  as¬ 
cended  the  Throne, 

He  took  the  reins  of  government 
and  named  the  “Chien  chung” 
(period). 

He  devoted  himself  to  the  cultiva¬ 
tion  of  the  Luminous  Virtue. 

His  military  sway  quelled  the  tu¬ 
mults  of  the  Dark  Sea  in  the 
Four  Quarters, 

Whilst  his  peaceful  rule  of  En¬ 
lightenment  purified  every 
part  of  the  world. 

As  the  light  from  a  candle  shines 
forth,  so  doth  his  glory  pene¬ 
trate  the  secrets  of  men. 

As  the  mirror  reflects  all  things, 
so  nothing  is  hid  from  his  ob¬ 
servant  eye. 

The  whole  Universe  gets  life  and  , 
light  because  of  him. 

And  even  many  of  the  rudest 
tribes  outside  the  Empire  take 
pattern  by  his  government. 

How  vast  and  extensive  is  the 
True  Way! 

Yet  how  minute  and  mysterious 
it  is. 

Making  a  great  effort  to  name  it. 

We  declared  it  to  be  “Three-in- 
One” ! 

O  Lord  nothing  is  impossible  for 
Thee ! 


182 


MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


The  sovereign  has  the  power  to 
act! 

While  the  ministers  record; 

We  raise  this  noble  monument! 
To  the  praise  of  great  felicity. 

This  was  erected  in  the  2d  year 
of  Kienchung,  of  the  Tang  dy¬ 
nasty  (a.  d.  781 ),  on  the  7th  day 
of  the  1st  month,  being  Sunday. 

Written  by  Lu  Siu-yen,  Secre¬ 
tary  to  Council,  formerly  Mili¬ 
tary  Superintendent  for  Taichau; 
while  the  Bishop  Ning-shu  had 
the  charge  of  the  congregations 
of  the  Illustrious  in  the  East. 

[  The  two  lines  of  Syriac  are  in 
the  Estrangelo  character,  and  run 
down  the  right  and  left  sides  of 
the  Chinese  respectively.  Kircher 
translates  this  as  follows:] 

“Adam,  Deacon,  Vicar-episco¬ 
pal  and  Pope  of  China. 

In  the  time  of  the  Father  of 
Fathers,  the  Lord  John 
Joshua,  the  Universal  Patri¬ 
arch.” 

[The  translation  of  the  Syriac 
at  the  foot  of  the  stone  is  given 
here  on  the  authority  of  Kircher:] 


Help  Thy  servants  that  they  may 
preach ! 

Hereby  we  raise  this  noble  Monu¬ 
ment, 

And  we  praise  Thee  for  Thy  great 
blessings  upon  us ! 

Erected  in  the  Second  vear  of 

«■ 

the  Chien-clmng  period  (781 
a.  d.)  of  the  Great  T’ang  (Dy¬ 
nasty),  the  year  Star  being  in 
Tso-o,  on  the  seventh  day  of  the 
First  month  (the  day  being),  the 
great  “Yao-sen-wen”  day;  when 
the  Spiritual  Lord,  the  Priest 
Ning-shu  (i.  e.  “mercy  and 
peace”),  was  entrusted  with  the 
care  of  the  Luminous  Communi¬ 
ties  of  the  East. 

(In  Syriac)  In  the  day  of  our 
Father  of  Fathers,  my  Lord 
Hanan-isho,  Catholicos,  Patriarch. 

(In  Chinese)  Written  by  Lii 
Hsiu-yen,  Assistant  Secretary  of 
State,  and  Superintendent  of  the 
Civil  Engineering  Bureau  of  T’ai 
Chou  (i.  e.  a  department  in 
Che-kiang). 

(Below  the  Inscription,  partly 
in  Syriac  and  partly  in  Chinese, 
are  these  notices) — 


THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION 


183 


“In  the  year  of  the  Greeks  one 
thousand  and  ninety-two,  the  Lord 
Jazedbuzid,  Priest  and  Vicar- 
episcopal  of  Cumdan  the  royal 
city,  son  of  the  enlightened 
Mailas,  Priest  of  Balach  a  city 
of  Turkestan,  set  up  this  tablet, 
whereon  is  inscribed  the  Dispen¬ 
sation  of  our  Redeemer,  and  the 
preaching  of  the  apostolic  mis¬ 
sionaries  to  the  King  of  China.” 

[After  this,  in  Chinese  char¬ 
acters,  is] 

“The  Priest  Lingpau.” 

[Then  follows:] 

“Adam  the  Deacon,  son  of  Jazed- 
buzid,  Vicar-episcopal, 

The  Lord  Sergius,  Priest  and 
Vicar-episcopal. 

Sabar  Jesus,  Priest. 

Gabriel,  Priest,  Archdeacon,  and 
Ecclesiarch  of  Cumdan  and 
Sarag.” 

[The  following  inscription  is 
appended  in  Chinese:] 

“Assistant  Examiner:  the  High 
Statesman  of  the  Sacred  rites, 
the  Imperially-conferred-purple- 
gown  Chief  Presbyter  and  Priest 
Yf-li.” 


(In  Syriac)  In  the  year  one 
thousand  and  ninety-two  of  the 
Greeks  (1092  -4-  311  =  a.  d.  781) 
my  Lord  Yesbuzid,  priest  and 
chorepiscopos  of  Kumdan,  the 
Royal  city,  son  of  the  departed 
Milis,  priest  from  Balkh,  a  city  of 
Tehuristan,  erected  this  Monu¬ 
ment,  wherein  is  written  the  Law 
of  Him,  our  Saviour,  the  Preach¬ 
ing  of  our  forefathers  to  the 
Rulers  of  the  Chinese. 

(In  Chinese)  Priest  Ling-pao. 

(In  Syriac)  Adam,  deacon,  son 
of  Yezdbuzid,  chor-episcopos ; 
Mar  Sergius,  priest  and  chor¬ 
episcopos. 

(In  Chinese)  The  Examiner 
and  Collator  at  the  erection  of  the 
Stone  Tablet,  priest  Hsing-t’ung. 

(In  Syriac)  Sabr-isho,  priest; 
Gabriel,  priest  and  archdeacon, 
and  the  Head  of  the  Church  of 
Kumdan  and  of  Saragh. 

(In  Chinese)  Assistant  Ex¬ 
aminer  and  Collator  at  the  erec¬ 
tion  of  the  Stone  Tablet,  priest 
Yeh-li  the  Head-priest  of  the 
monastery,  who  is  honoured  with 
the  purple-coloured  ecclesiastical 
vestment,  and  who  is  the  Director 
of  the  Imperial  Bureau  of  Cere¬ 
monies,  Music,  and  Sacrifices. 


184  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 

So  far  the  absorbingly  interesting  translations  of  Alex¬ 
ander  Wylie,  the  great  British  missionary,  and  of  Pro¬ 
fessor  P.  Y.  Saeki,  the  learned  Japanese  sinologue! 

There  are  still  inscribed,  on  both  slender  sides  of  the 
Stone,  upwards  of  seventy  names  of  Nestorian  mission¬ 
aries  with  their  transliterations  in  Chinese.  All  of  them 
are  enumerated  in  Saeki’ s  book. 

The  back  of  the  Chingchiaopei,  however,  is  innocent  of 
inscription. 

And,  I  suppose,  one  must  mention  that  on  the  right  side 
of  the  Monument,  i.  e.  the  left  when  facing  the  inscription, 
is  superscribed,  in  a  most  vainglorious  and  vandalic  man¬ 
ner,  the  omni-important  fact  that  one  Han  Hwai  Tah 
came  and  visited  the  famous  relic  during  a.  d.  1859. 

Only  too  vividly  do  I  recall  the  righteous  indignation 
of  the  native  stonecutters  at  having  to  add  this  preposter¬ 
ous  postscript  of  yesteryear  in  order  that  the  Replica 
might  be  rendered  complete. 


IX 

CROSSING  THE  CHINGLING  RANGE 


I  DECIDED  to  make  my  way  back  to  the 
white  man’s  settlements  by  caravan  and  na¬ 
tive  houseboat,  as  I  had  come ;  that  is  to  say, 
I  had  chosen  the  route  across  the  Chingling 
Range  and  south  along  the  Tan  and  Han  rivers. 

It  would  indeed  have  been  quicker,  cheaper 
and  more  comfortable  to  retrace  our  steps  to 
Honan-fu  and  then  proceed  about  one  hundred 
miles  further  eastward  until  the  Kin-Han  rail¬ 
way  was  reached  at  Chengchow,  whereupon  both 
Peking  and  Hankow  would  be  within  easy  reach. 
Yet,  I  thought  but  little  of  studying  China  from 
a  railway  train  and,  consequently,  in  spite  of  heat 
and  health,  I  chose  the  more  troublesome  and 
slower  route,  as  I  had  done  on  the  way  south 
from  Tientsin. 

Looking  at  a  map  of  China  proper,  one  would 
point  out  the  Yang-tse-kiang  as  the  natural 
boundary  between  North  and  South  China  but 
so  far  as  the  local  characteristics  of  the  popula¬ 
tion  are  concerned,  this  is  hardly  correct,  and  the 
Chingling  range  forms  a  much  more  true  barrier 
between  Manji  and  Cathay. 


185 


186  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


This  range,  which  reaches  11,000  feet  in  height 
at  some  points,  is  also  the  southern  boundary 
line  of  the  Loess  formations,  which  are  not  found 
in  the  Yang-tse  valley. 

Although  both  the  northerner  and  the  south¬ 
erner  are  first  and  foremost  essentially  Chinese, 
it  is  not  erroneous  to  imply  that  a  man  from 
Tientsin  and  one  from  Canton  are  pretty  well  as 
different  as  an  Icelander  and  a  Sicilian,  or  as  a 
Canadian  and  a  Mexican.  Nevertheless,  even 
immediately  on  both  sides  of  the  Chingling 
range,  a  marked  difference  in  character  and 
mode  of  living  may  be  noticed. 

In  the  north,  the  people  eat  wheat,  sleep  on  the 
kang  or  heated  bedstead,  live  in  walled  villages 
and  are  slow  of  mind  and  temper.  In  the  south 
the  population  live  chiefly  on  rice,  sleep  in  a  bed 
or  on  the  floor,  live  in  houses  often  miles  apart, 
and  are  easily  excited,  as  well  as  more  intelligent 
to  grasp  an  idea  than  their  northern  brethren. 
In  the  north  all  kinds  of  work  are  done  by  ani¬ 
mals;  in  the  south,  which  is  in  many  places 
fiercely  overpopulated,  most  work  is  done  by 
human  beings. 

After  having  thanked  Mr.  Schaumloeffel  for 
his  hospitality  during  our  stay,  Mr.  Fong,  Masi, 
the  caravan,  and  I  departed  on  June  29th. 

The  trail  across  the  mountain-passes  being 
naturally  impassable  for  carts,  our  caravan  con- 


CROSSING  THE  CHINGLING  RANGE  187 


sisted  of  four  mules  and  a  sedan  chair  of  light 
material,  which  I  had  allowed  the  anti-equestrian 
Mr.  Fong  to  use  in  spite  of  all  etiquette,  Mr. 
Fong  in  his  chair  being  considered  a  much 
greater  personage  than  I  myself  on  an  humble 
mule. 

I  did  not  care,  however,  and  the  chair  proved 
more  than  handv  afterwards,  as  we  shall  see. 

The  evening  of  the  first  day  saw  us  at  Lantien, 
once  noted  for  its  jade  industry,  twenty-four 
miles  southeast  of  Sian-fu,  and  during  sunrise 
the  next  morning  we  entered  the  mountainous 
regions  of  the  Chingling.  The  initial  ascent  was 
very  slow  and  steep,  and  the  path  wound  its  way 
up  the  mountain-side  in  a  treacherous  zig-zag, 
with  abysses  yawning  below  our  trail. 

My  servant  Masi  was  on  the  first  mule,  then 
came  a  couple  of  pack-mules,  and  eventually  my 
own  self  on  an  old  paralytic  riding-mule,  while 
Mr.  Fong  brought  up  the  rear  in  his  comfort¬ 
able  chair. 

It  was  no  real  inspiration  to  watch  one’s  cases 
and  boxes,  tied  to  loose  wooden  saddles,  sway 
over  the  chasms,  while  the  mules  that  always  with 
unfailing  obstinacy  insisted  on  walking  an  inch 
or  less  from  the  precipice,  turned  the  sharp  cor¬ 
ners  on  the  upward  way. 

I  shuddered  when  I  thought  of  the  possibility 
of  beholding  the  box  with  my  manuscripts,  maps 


188  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


and  instruments  disappear  over  the  mountain¬ 
side  and  be  done  with  forever. 

In  the  evening  we  arrived,  late  and  tired,  at 
a  small,  dirty  inn  at  the  mountain  village  of 
Lanchiao,  where  we  were  hardly  able  to  get  any 
room  at  all. 

The  inns  along  the  mule-tracks  are  extremely 
small  and  poor,  and  excessively  dirty,  and  the 
inn-keepers  are  not  too  obliging. 

The  Chingling  range  is  undoubtedly  the 
world’s  emporium  for  fleas,  and  the  late  Mr. 
William  Whiteley,  of  London,  would  have  found 
no  difficulty  in  supplying  the  proverbial  cus¬ 
tomer,  who  desired  to  buy  a  pint  of  live  fleas,  had 
he  maintained  an  agency  in  these  regions.  Be¬ 
sides  fleas,  the  crowded  inns  swarm  with  the  most 
objectionable  sorts  of  vermin,  which  no  mosquito- 
net  can  exclude,  and  it  is  next  to  impossible  to 
obtain  even  an  hour’s  uninterrupted  rest. 

The  last  few  days  in  Sian-fu  I  had  not  been 
feeling  quite  well  and,  after  another  sleepless 
night,  I  felt  worse  the  third  morning  out. 

After  less  than  an  hour’s  ride,  I  started  spit¬ 
ting  blood  and  felt  as  if  I  were  about  to  faint. 

I  could  not  account  for  these,  under  the  cir¬ 
cumstances,  very  disagreeable  symptoms,  but 
decided  to  push  on.  I  grew  too  weak  to  ride  any 
further,  and  consequently  got  into  Mr.  Fong’s 
chair,  which,  although  certainly  not  comfortable 


CROSSING  THE  CHINGLING  RANGE  189 


for  a  sick  man,  was  naturally  ten-fold  better 
than  the  mule. 

During  the  next  two  days  I  was  able  to  pro¬ 
ceed  only  some  twelve  miles  per  day,  both  the 
muleteers  and  the  chairmen  grumbling  at  the 
delay. 

As  I  was  growing  worse  instead  of  better,  suf¬ 
fering  badly  from  fever  besides  lack  of  sleep  due 
to  the  dreadful  vermin,  I  feared  that  I  had  an 
attack  of  typhoid  or  dysentery,  or  even  both. 

On  the  sixth  day,  near  the  city  of  Shangchow, 
I  found  a  solitary  Catholic  missionary,  a  student 
of  herbs,  with  whom  I  had  a  talk  about  my  state 
of  health.  The  kind  Father,  who  was  an  Italian, 
was  much  concerned  and  wanted  me  to  stay ;  but 
I  preferred  to  push  on,  and  as  the  priest  did  not 
think  that  my  case  presented  any  immediate 
danger,  he  gave  me  some  medicine  and  kindly 
promised  to  come  after  me  to  Lungchiichai  in 
case  I  grew  worse. 

The  Chingling  mountains  do  not  possess  any 
really  grand  scenery  like  the  Rocky  Mountains 
or  the  Alps,  although  they  are  wild  enough,  so  I 
did  not  miss  very  much  by  being  carried  in  the 
semi-closed  chair.  Nor  for  that  matter,  did  we 
have  very  favourable  weather,  rain-showers  be¬ 
ing  frequent,  and  the  temperature  low  for  the 
season. 

Yet  I  fear  that  even  the  grandest  of  scenery 


190  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


would  not  have  found  response  within  me  in  my 
unfortunate  state  of  health,  that  may  have  be¬ 
come  aggravated  by  my  bathing  in  and  drinking 
of  a  mountain-stream  that  coursed  through  our 
village  the  second  evening  from  Sian-fu. 

Rather  vividly  do  I  remember  a  night  among 
those  wild  deserfed  passes  in  southern  Shensi. 

Feverish  and  exhausted,  I  had  been  unable  to 
eat  any  of  the  food  that  was  offered  by  the  dirty 
inn,  and  our  own  meagre  provisions  had  now 
entirely  given  out. 

For  some  reason  or  other,  no  bedding  was 
spread  for  me,  and  I  lay  down  on  some  boards 
with  a  few  rags  over  me. 

After  a  while,  the  men  of  mv  own  caravan 
were  fed  and  at  rest;  while  other  travellers  were 
making  the  usual  noise  before  turning  in. 

I  dozed  for  a  while,  and  eventually  awoke  with 
a  burning  thirst  and  a  feeling  of  suffocation.  I 
struck  a  match.  Only  partly  undressed,  yet 
hardly  covered,  I  observed  a  procession  of  lice 
pass  in  at  the  one  side  of  the  boards,  take  their 
fill,  and  pass  out  the  other  way. 

In  disgust,  I  crawled  down  or  rather  fell  from 
the  loose  boards,  making  my  wajr  in  the  darkness 
towards  the  courtyard,  where  I  hoped  to  en¬ 
counter  a  drop  of  water,  however  filthy. 

The  last  I  remember  of  that  excursion  on  my 
knees  and  hands  is  a  fleeting  thought  of  resent- 


CROSSING  THE  CHINGLING  RANGE  191 


merit  against  death,  which  was  now  irretrievably 
overtaking  me,  and  a  slow  sinking — into  the 
sticky  mud  of  the  wet  yard. 

When  next  I  awoke,  I  was  again  lying  upon 
the  boards  that  served  as  my  bunk,  with  Mr. 
Fong,  and  one  or  two  others,  talking  rather 
decently  to  me. 

A  dismal  night  for  an  otherwise  lusty  rover! 

On  the  5th  of  July  we  arrived  at  Lungchiichai, 
and  I  was  feeling  a  little  stronger.  I  was  much 
disappointed  at  learning  that  the  water  was  too 
low  for  navigation  on  the  Tan  river  as  yet,  and 
that  we  would  have  to  travel  four  days  over  the 
mountains  to  Kingtzekuan,  on  the  border  of 
Honan,  before  we  should  find  the  river  navigable. 

We  had  used  seven  days,  thanks  to  my  indis¬ 
position,  to  get  from  Sian-fu  to  Lungchiichai,  a 
distance  of  only  130  miles.  The  journey  may  be 
accomplished  in  five  days,  as  Richthofen  cor¬ 
rectly  remarks,  but  travellers  usually  take  six. 

From  Lungchiichai  to  Kingtzekuan  meant 
another  four  days’  mountain  journey,  across 
difficult  passes  and  along  stony  river-valleys, 
amounting  to  some  300  li ,  and  I  did  not  look  for¬ 
ward  to  the  trip  as  one  of  pleasure  in  my  en¬ 
feebled  state  of  health. 

Meanwhile,  there  was  no  alternative,  and  we 
accordingly  started  in  a  heavy  rain  the  following 
morning  with  our  four  re-employed  mules,  and 


192  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


myself  in  a  new  chair — the  former  carriers  hay¬ 
ing  dropped  me  twice  through  gross  neglect,  the 
consequence  of  which  was  dismissal,  a  fine  of  500 
cash,  and  no  tip. 

During  our  lengthy  stay  at  Sian-fu,  my  serv¬ 
ant  Masi  had  had  practically  nothing  to  do,  with 
the  sad  result  that  the  very  little  interest  he  for¬ 
merly  took  in  my  personal  comfort  had  entirely 
vanished  into  thin  air.  In  spite  of  my  illness,  as 
well  as  several  reprimands,  he  in  no  way  re¬ 
formed  on  the  road  to  Lungchiichai,  and  en  route 
to  Kingtzekuan  he  did  not  even  execute  my 
orders. 

Feeling  a  bit  stronger  day  by  day,  and  seeing 
that  he  was  playing  some  game  of  his  own — 
amongst  other  things  wilfully  sliding  off  his  mule 
every  half  hour — I  got  out  of  my  chair,  and,  in 
front  of  all  the  mule-men  and  chair-bearers,  and 
to  the  great  consternation  of  several  villagers, 
gave  him  a  sound  thrashing  with  my  excellent 
Cossack  whip,  incidentally  to  the  marked  joy  of 
Mr.  Fong,  who  had  advocated  such  treatment 
ages  ago  for  his  dishonesty  and  lies  and  laziness. 

Although  greatly  against  my  desire,  it  was  the 
only  course  to  take  against  open  disobedience, 
and  it  helped — for  the  day. 

But  that  evening,  when  we  arrived  at  the  little 
village  of  Wukwang,  the  rascal  disappeared.  I 
sent  Mr.  Fong  to  the  local  yamen,  and  the  minoi 


CROSSING  THE  CHINGLING  RANGE  193 


official  in  charge  of  the  town  at  once  called  on 
me,  presenting  himself  with  a  deep  bow,  “dip¬ 
ping”  the  right  hand  towards  the  ground  in 
Manchu  fashion. 

In  half  an  hour  the  recalcitrant  miscreant  was 
recaptured  by  some  soldiers  and  brought  before 
me ;  he  had  been  found  outside  the  village,  lectur¬ 
ing  on  the  cruelty  of  foreigners  in  general,  and 
myself  in  particular.  Masi  was  forced  by  the 
mandarin  to  apologize  and  promise  better  be¬ 
haviour.  He  looked  very  cheap  and  was  eventu¬ 
ally  reinstated  in  his  post  as  boy-cook,  which  he 
could  use  any  time  he  chose  for  poisoning  me. 

The  next  day,  Sunday,  I  felt  still  better  after 
a  tolerably  good  night,  and  during  the  forenoon 
we  crossed  not  less  than  four  passes  of  consider¬ 
able  altitude. 

Masi’s  lesson  of  the  previous  day  had  evidently 
not  been  serious  enough,  for  he  feigned  sun¬ 
stroke,  although  the  sun  did  not  shine,  and  his 
former  inability  to  keep  his  balance  on  mule-back 
manifested  itself  again,  with  the  consequence  that 
I  saw  myself  compelled  to  give  him  another  good 
thrashing.  This  action  altered  his  behaviour  for 
the  time  being,  but  in  the  evening  he  escaped 
again  at  the  hsien-town  of  Shangnan. 

This  I  thought,  was  too  much  of  a  good  thing, 
and  I  sent  Mr.  Fong  to  the  magistrate  with  my 
Chinese  visiting-card  and  passport  in  order  to 


194  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


get  his  immediate  assistance  and  have  the  fellow 
arrested. 

The  magistrate,  who  was  a  Ningpo-man, 
would  have  cut  off  Masi’s  ears  and  nose,  had  I 
asked  him  to  do  so.  He  was  only  too  eager 
to  assist  me,  cursing  my  servant’s  behaviour, 
especially  when  hearing  that  I  was  barely 
convalescing. 

Masi  was  eventually  found,  arrested  by  sol¬ 
diers  once  more,  and  brought  to  the  inn  in  a 
somewhat  pride-reduced  state.  He  was  rein¬ 
stated  again,  but  this  time  under  the  argus  eye  of 
a  soldier  from  the  yamen,  who  followed  us  for 
the  next  two  days  to  Kingtzekuan  in  order  to 
embody  the  magistrate’s  guarantee  of  decent  be¬ 
haviour  on  the  culprit’s  part. 

I  fined  Masi  heavily  for  his  two  unwarranted 
escapades,  and  he  seemed  to  reform — a  little. 

The  reason  we  had  been  able  from  day  to  day 
to  avoid  the  usual  escort  of  soldiers  after  leaving 
Sian-fu  was  that,  when  sending  the  officials  there 
my  p,  p.  c.  cards,  I  had  intentionally  given  a 
wrong  date  for  our  departure.  It  was  quite  a 
treat  to  travel  without  the  superfluous  military 
guard,  and  we  were  certainly  numerous  enough 
among  ourselves,  for  with  chair-bearers  and 
mule-drivers  we  numbered  ten. 

At  Shangnan  the  population  was  complaining 
of  the  same  drought  that  had  hindered  us  from 


CROSSING  THE  CHINGLING  RANGE  195 


getting  a  boat  at  Lungchiichai ;  and  in  the 
evening  the  villagers  formed  a  long  procession, 
firing  crackers  and  beating  gongs,  in  order  to 
induce  the  rain- joss  to  send  some  water.  I  do 
not  know  whether  the  procession  succeeded  in 
obtaining  any  results. 

The  population  of  these  mountain  regions 
which,  by  the  way,  is  rather  scarce,  suffers  largely 
from  a  peculiar,  goitre-like,  apparently  incurable 
throat-disease,  which  swells  the  neck  to  double 
and  even  treble  the  normal  size.  I  tried  to  gather 
some  information  from  various  villages,  and  it 
appears  that  the  evil  is  attributed  to  the  drinking 
water,  which  one  would  think  should  be  quite 
pure  here,  and  that  the  disease,  which  is  not  pain¬ 
ful,  exclusively  attacks  adults,  men  and  women 
alike,  and  never  children.  The  many  hundreds  I 
observed  suffering  from  the  disease,  presented  a 
very  unattractive  appearance  with  their  thick¬ 
ened  bull-necks,  and  certainly  deserve  great 
sympathy. 

Several  patients  called  on  me  in  the  hope  that 
I  might  be  a  physician,  but  unfortunately  I  had 
to  disappoint  the  poor  wretches. 

Our  last  caravan-night  in  the  Chingling  we 
passed  at  Sankwanmiao,  a  village  consisting  of 
some  five  or  six  clumsy  stone  houses,  situated  in 
the  narrow  gorge  of  a  dry,  stony  river-bed. 

In  the  early  afternoon  on  J uly  9th  we  arrived 


196  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


at  the  military  stronghold  of  Kingtzekuan  on  the 
river  Tan. 

A  Likin,  or  internal  revenue  station,  was  situ¬ 
ated  here.  Altogether,  the  MacKay  Treaty  of 
1902,  providing  for  the  abolition  of  Likin,  has 
shown  itself  regrettably  ineffective,  for  since  the 
treaty  was  ratified,  more  stations  are  said  to  have 
been  created.  The  Kingtzekuan  customs-bar, 
however,  is  an  old  one,  and  was  originally  opened 
to  levy  a  tax  for  the  preservation  of  the  river- 
banks.  The  officials,  when  the  banks  were  once 
more  in  good  order,  did  not  like  to  close  down  the 
handy  station,  for  obvious  reasons,  and  it  has 
been  kept  open  till  this  day. 

Anything  to  squeeze  the  people ! 

During  the  day  we  dismissed  our  muleteers 
and  chair-coolies,  and  we  succeeded  in  making  a 
contract  with  one  of  the  long  river-skiffs  for 
taking  us  south  as  far  as  Laohokow  on  the  Han 
Kiang,  about  360  li,  say  110  miles. 

In  the  late  afternoon  we  went  on  board  with 
all  our  belongings,  and  I  hoisted,  on  a  bamboo- 
stick,  the  Danish  flag,  “Dannebrog,”  of  which  I 
had  caused  an  approximate  likeness  to  be  made 
at  Sian-fu. 

A  Chinese  tailor  had  copied  it  from  a  colour- 
print  in  my  possession  of  the  emblem,  flown  by 
the  Royal  Navy;  but  I  hope  that  a  gracious 
government  will  accept  my  apologies  for  tern- 


CROSSING  THE  CHINGLING  RANGE  197 


porarily  misappropriating  the  naval  ensign 
considering  the  peculiar  circumstances. 

Mayhap  I  should  have  done  originally  as  did 
that  much-discussed  explorer  of  the  frozen 
north,  Civil  Engineer  R.  E.  Peary — styled 
“Rear-Admiral”  by  himself  and  the  unwary — 
and  as  did  many  another  traveller  in  many  a 
strange  land :  I  should  have  brought  with  me  my 
national  banner,  sewn  in  silk  by  beauteous  ladies 
at  home,  so  that  I  might  appropriately  “nail” 
the  emblem  onto  any  result  of  my  expedition, 
whether  real  or  imagined. 

But,  like  so  many  other  things — I  shall  men¬ 
tion  only  pianos,  libraries,  champagne,  and 
phonographs — which  some  explorers  consider  es¬ 
sential,  the  Danish  flag  had  been  overlooked  in 
the  initial  shuffle  for  making  a  start  from  Lon¬ 
don  and  New  York,  and,  truth  to  tell,  the  idea 
of  using  my  flag  entered  my  head  only  after  see¬ 
ing  the  magic  effect  created  by  the  use  of  Chinese 
governmental  banners,  and  even  one  or  two  for¬ 
eign  flags,  in  the  interior  of  the  Middle  Kingdom. 

I  simply  had  to  follow  suit,  and  that  is  the 
secret  of  the  two  Danish  cotton-flags  which  the 
native  tailor  made  for  me  at  Sian-fu,  and  of 
which  I  used  one  on  my  boats  and  carts,  while  the 
other  was  to  fly  over  the  Replica  for  protection — 
but  I  am  anticipating  the  sequence  of  events. 

We  made  a  start  that  afternoon  from  Kingtze- 


198  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


kuan,  and  managed  to  cover  quite  a  few  miles, 
despite  lively  rapids  and  troublesome  shallows, 
before  dark  set  in,  whereupon  we  “dropped  the 
hook”  on  the  rocky  bank  for  the  night. 


X 


A  FAST  HOUSEBOAT  TRIP 

THE  boat  I  had  chartered  was  a  long,  nar¬ 
row  skiff,  the  usual  type  on  the  upper 
Tan,  where  the  river  is  narrow  and  rapids 
frequent. 

The  middle  part  of  the  boat  was  divided  into 
small,  athwart  ship  compartments,  destined  for 
cargo,  and  made  the  boat  look  like  a  miniature 
horse  or  cattle  ferry.  This  part  of  the  vessel  was 
covered  with  matting,  which  was  encouragingly 
leaky  so  as  to  permit  buckets  of  rain  to  pass 
through,  a  very  agreeable  circumstance  which 
caused  me  and  my  bedding  to  get  thoroughly 
drenched  the  second  night. 

The  first  day  we  made  our  way  through  many 
small  rapids  with  beautiful  clear  water,  and  in¬ 
numerable  large  and  small  shallows,  where  the 
boatmen  had  to  jump  out  and  help  the  light 
skiff  over. 

We  passed  numerous  boats  going  up  the  river 
with  light  cargoes,  and  all  had  to  encounter  and 
conquer  the  difficulties  laid  in  their  way  by  the 
shallows,  with  the  consequence  that  all  the  boat¬ 
men  worked  naked,  ready  to  jump  out,  or  rather 


199 


200  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


in,  at  any  given  moment.  Their  brown  and  yel¬ 
low  bodies  gleamed,  with  Malayan  picturesque¬ 
ness,  against  a  background  of  white  and  grey 
sails,  in  the  golden  sunshine  overhead. 

Sometimes,  when  some  unfortunate  boat  had 
become  hopelessly  entangled  among  sand-banks, 
the  men  would  get  out  and  perform  a  most 
peculiar-looking  war-dance  in  order  to  create  a 
channel  with  their  feet,  through  which  they  might 
safely  pull  and  push  the  stranded  vessel. 

During  the  three  days  we  passed  in  this  un¬ 
comfortable  boat,  I  almost  succeeded  in  regain¬ 
ing  my  health,  thanks  to  rest  and  air  and 
occasional  sun. 

Towards  evening  on  July  11th,  we  passed  the 
village  of  Likwanchiao,  which  enjoys  the  reputa¬ 
tion  of  being  a  veritable  nest  of  pirates  and 
brigands. 

We  anchored  for  the  night  south  of  the  town, 
and  I  told  the  boatmen  that,  in  case  I  heard  any 
suspicious  noise  during  the  night,  or  if  I  heard 
either  of  the  two  “doors”  tampered  with,  I  would 
discharge  my  revolver  instantly.  F ortunately,  I 
was  afforded  no  opportunity  for  doing  any  shoot¬ 
ing,  and  the  night  passed  very  quietly  until  the 
boat  was  started  on  her  voyage  at  daybreak. 

The  next  morning  was  a  very  rainy  one,  and  it 
was  not  possible  to  enjoy  the  pretty  hill-scenery, 
through  which  we  were  passing,  from  the  deck. 


{Top,  left )  Tang  Pagoda  south  of  the  Shensi  Capital. 
(Top,  right )  Mohammedan  Mosque  in  Sian-fn  ;  oldest  in  China. 
( Bottom ,  left)  River  craft  on  the  Tan. 

( Bottom ,  right )  My  houseboat  on  the  Han  River,  with  Danish 

flag  at  mast. 


A  FAST  HOUSEBOAT  TRIP 


201 


I  am  afraid  that  if  my  friends  could  have  seen  me 
that  morning,  they  would  hardly  have  recog¬ 
nized  me. 

I  was  sitting,  wet  and  disgusted,  on  a  small 
packing-case,  under  the  leaky  matting,  in  the 
bottom  of  the  skiff,  trying  to  make  something 
like  order  out  of  the  notes  belonging  to  the  sev¬ 
eral  scores  of  negatives  I  had  exposed  during 
the  past  ten  weeks.  My  face  Avas  unshaven,  my 
hair  was  as  long  as  that  of  a  Russian  priest,  not 
having  been  cut  since  I  left  Tientsin,  my  khaki 
was  wet  and  not  particularly  clean,  and  my 
surroundings  looked  like  a  minor  warehouse, 
full  of  boxes,  cases,  household  utensils,  and 
what  not. 

The  “floor”  of  the  next  section  was  strewn 
with  articles  of  wet  clothing  and  thousands  of 
copper-cash  on  pieces  of  string — part  of  our 
cash-in-hand — all  surmounted  by  my  mosquito- 
net,  looking  moist  and  sad.  Near  my  mattress- 
bed  was  standing  Masi’s  box,  containing  his  few 
personal  belongings,  of  which  I  had  paternally 
taken  charge  to  prevent  future  disappearances. 

I  myself,  and  the  surroundings,  thus  presented 
anything  but  an  inviting  picture,  and  I  repeat 
my  suspicion  that  many  a  fastidious  friend  would 
have  passed  me  unheeded.  Still  I  did  not  grum¬ 
ble  much — only  a  little — and  I  nurtured  the  con¬ 
solation  that  my  friends  do  not  as  a  rule  take 


202  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


their  afternoon-walk  on  the  banks  of  the  Tan  in 
Honan. 

In  the  early  afternoon  of  July  12th,  we  arrived 
at  Laohokow,  a  very  considerable  trade-port  of 
great  age.  A  little  above  the  city,  almost  wrhere 
we  passed  from  Honan  into  Hupeh,  the  Tan 
Xiang  joins  the  larger  Han  Kiang,  which  is  one 
of  the  most  important  rivers,  so  far  as  navigation 
is  concerned,  of  the  entire  country. 

During  the  afternoon  I  chartered  a  house-boat 
of  the  “San  Tsang  Pai  Tsz”  type  for  16,000 
large  cash,  or  about  thirteen  dollars  gold,  to  take 
me  and  my  belongings  safely  to  Hankow,  a  dis¬ 
tance  of  some  five  hundred  miles.  When  the 
usual  advance-money  had  been  paid,  we  moved 
from  our  little  Kingtzekuan  skiff  to  the  larger 
house-boat  and  straightaway  settled  down  in  the 
cabin  as  comfortably  as  possible. 

Laohokow  was  left  behind  when  the  sun  ap¬ 
peared,  and  we  began  a  six  days’  rather  unevent¬ 
ful  voyage.  The  strong  current  of  the  Han 
permitted  us  to  do  upwards  of  six,  even  seven 
miles  an  hour — a  considerable  improvement  com¬ 
pared  with  our  speed  on  the  Grand  Canal. 

Masi,  now  that  he  had  no  chance  to  slide  off 
any  mule-back,  and  presumably  disliking  the 
idea  of  sliding  off  into  the  yellow  stream,  behaved 
quite  well.  He  even  surprised  me  on  the  first 
day  by  serving  a  well-roasted  chicken  with  rice 


A  FAST  HOUSEBOAT  TRIP 


203 


and  Chinese  gravy,  a  feat  that  he  had,  to  my 
knowledge,  never  performed  before.  On  the 
second  day  he  came  and  told  me,  evidently  on  the 
verge  of  crying,  how  grief-stricken  he  felt  that 
he  had  endeavoured  to  run  away  in  the  mountains 
and  that  he  would  never  attempt  such  a  thing 
again.  I  replied  that  I  fully  reciprocated  and 
appreciated  his  feelings,  of  which  statement  he 
understood  not  a  word. 

The  swift  current  of  the  Han  is  not  beneficial 
to  its  banks.  The  number  of  landslides  is  enor¬ 
mous,  and  it  is  said  to  be  an  every-day  event  that 
a  house  on  the  banks,  sometimes  with,  sometimes 
without  its  inhabitants,  disappears  in  the  mud  of 
the  river-bottom. 

Now  and  then,  when  sitting  in  the  cabin,  writ¬ 
ing  or  reading,  I  would  suddenly  hear  a  noise 
like  that  of  distant  thunder,  or  of  an  oncoming 
avalanche,  and,  on  looking  out  through  the  cabin- 
window,  would  perceive  tons  of  mud  disappear¬ 
ing  with  a  tremendous  splash  in  the  foaming 
water. 

The  “camel-men”  who  pull  the  junks  up 
against  the  current,  are  exposed,  so  the  skipper 
told  me,  to  the  constant  danger  of  these  land¬ 
slides.  They  have  to  tread  hard  on  the  tow-path 
as  they  pull  along,  and  it  is  often  that  a  piece  of 
land  gives  way,  throwing  the  land-sailors  into  the 
water,  from  which  they  are  but  seldom  rescued. 


204  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


A  good  Chinaman  would  not  think  of  robbing 
the  river-spirits  of  their  chosen  victim! 

During  the  afternoon  we  reached  the  impor¬ 
tant  transit  city  of  Siangyang,  which  is  in  lively 
ferry  communication  with  Fancheng  on  the  left 
side  of  the  Han.  The  main-road  from  the 
upper  Yangtse  regions  to  the  northern  part  of 
Honan,  and  beyond,  crosses  the  river  here.  The 
telegraph-wire  is  stretched  across  from  Siang¬ 
yang  to  Fancheng  between  two  very  high,  well- 
supported  masts,  presenting  one  of  the  widest 
spans  I  remember  to  have  seen. 

At  Tungkwan,  in  Shensi,  there  is  a  similar  im¬ 
posing  stretch  of  wire  across  the  Hwang-ho, 
which  usually,  when  wind  or  snow  sets  in,  makes 
itself  inconspicuous  to  the  eye  by  falling  down. 
Perhaps  under-water  cables  would  not  be  en¬ 
tirely  out  of  place  at  such  points.  The  high-road 
from  Fancheng  to  Honan-fu,  incidentally,  is  con¬ 
sidered  very  dangerous,  infested  as  it  is  with 
organized  bands  of  well-armed  robbers. 

There  are  not  many  cities  and  villages  along 
the  Han.  The  houses  are  mostly  lying  apart; 
everybody  looking  out  for  his  own. 

We  were  entering  South  China  proper,  where 
rice  and  tea  are  grown,  where  the  sun  burns  in 
the  summer  with  tropical  strength,  and  where  the 
heavy,  dark -grey,  good-natured  buffalo  is  in  evi¬ 
dence  everywhere.  When  the  day’s  toil  is  over, 


A  FAST  HOUSEBOAT  TRIP 


205 


the  farm-boys  ride  their  buffaloes  down  the  steep 
bank,  and  the  tired  animal  enjoys  half  an  hour’s 
immersion  in  the  cooling  water,  half  buried  in  the 
mud.  Only  the  eyes,  nose  and  horns  are  visible, 
and  it  is  good  fun  to  watch  the  trouble  which  the 
small  boys  must  daily  plan  against  and  conquer, 
in  order  to  induce  the  water-buffalo  to  leave 
his  bath. 

Whenever  we  passed  a  village,  a  rare  occur¬ 
rence,  we  stopped  to  buy  fresh  provisions,  Masi 
earning  the  inevitable  “squeeze.” 

Having  nearly  recovered  from  my  recent  ill¬ 
ness  it  was  only  reasonable  that  another  ailment 
should  take  its  place.  I  had  not  been  careful 
enough  with  my  eyes  and,  consequently,  con¬ 
tracted  an  acute  attack  of  conjunctivitis,  which 
caused  me  a  good  deal  of  annoyance,  as  I  did  not 
dare  read  or  write. 

It  was  evident  that  we  were  nearing  more 
civilized  regions,  for  we  again  met  with  10-cash 
coins,  equalling  one  Mexican  cent,  and  we  were 
even  able  to  change  one  or  two  Mexican  dollars 
without  much  loss  or  trouble. 

The  night  between  the  17th  and  18th  we  were 
able  to  make  progress  throughout  the  night, 
thanks  to  the  moon;  and  in  the  evening  of  the 
18th  of  July,  at  8  p.  m.,  we  turned  from  the  Han 
into  the  enormous  Yang-tse-kiang  between  the 
cities  of  Hanyang  and  Hankow. 


206  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


A  little  later  I  was  once  more  able  to  enjoy  a 
European  dinner  in  a  good,  foreign  hotel,  the 
Astor  House. 

It  was  quite  a  strange  sensation  to  see  so  many 
white  people  around. 

I  got  all  the  luggage  safely  up  to  my  room  in 
the  Astor  House  Hotel,  where  I  had  not  stayed 
for  more  than  five  years,  paid  the  boat-people 
off,  and  enjoyed  a  long  night’s  rest  in  a  com¬ 
fortable  bed. 

My  first  act  after  getting  up  in  the  morning 
was  to  despatch  the  worthy  Masi  to  his  Egyptian 
flesh-pots  in  Tientsin.  I  sent  him  by  the  Kin- 
Han’s  newly  opened  railway  line  to  Peking, 
from  where  another  train  would  take  him  to  the 
city  of  his  heart.  I  was  very  glad  to  see  the  last 
of  him,  yet  still  worse  was  to  befall  me  as  far  as 
servants  were  concerned. 

This  not  being  a  book  on  China’s  treaty-ports, 
I  shall  say  next  to  nothing  about  Hankow. 

The  five  years  and  a  half  that  had  elapsed  since 
I  last  visited  the  city  had  not  changed  it  very 
much.  There  were  the  same  old,  and  some  new 
foreign  faces  to  be  seen,  there  were  the  same  fre¬ 
quent  dinners,  the  same  club-life,  the  same  alco¬ 
holism,  the  same  wearisome  afternoon  teas  at  the 
race-course. 

Some  improvement  and  progress  were  to  be 
traced  in  the  half-dozen  foreign  settlements;  a 


A  FAST  HOUSEBOAT  TRIP 


205 


the  farm-boys  ride  their  buffaloes  down  the  steep 
bank,  and  the  tired  animal  enjoys  half  an  hour’s 
immersion  in  the  cooling  water,  half  buried  in  the 
mud.  Only  the  eyes,  nose  and  horns  are  visible, 
and  it  is  good  fun  to  watch  the  trouble  which  the 
small  boys  must  daily  plan  against  and  conquer, 
in  order  to  induce  the  water-buffalo  to  leave 
his  bath. 

Whenever  we  passed  a  village,  a  rare  occur¬ 
rence,  we  stopped  to  buy  fresh  provisions,  Masi 
earning  the  inevitable  “squeeze.” 

Having  nearly  recovered  from  my  recent  ill¬ 
ness  it  was  only  reasonable  that  another  ailment 
should  take  its  place.  I  had  not  been  careful 
enough  with  my  eyes  and,  consequently,  con¬ 
tracted  an  acute  attack  of  conjunctivitis,  which 
caused  me  a  good  deal  of  annoyance,  as  I  did  not 
dare  read  or  write. 

It  was  evident  that  we  were  nearing  more 
civilized  regions,  for  we  again  met  with  10-cash 
coins,  equalling  one  Mexican  cent,  and  we  were 
even  able  to  change  one  or  two  Mexican  dollars 
without  much  loss  or  trouble. 

The  night  between  the  17th  and  18th  we  were 
able  to  make  progress  throughout  the  night, 
thanks  to  the  moon;  and  in  the  evening  of  the 
18th  of  July,  at  8  p.  m.,  we  turned  from  the  Han 
into  the  enormous  Yang-tse-kiang  between  the 
cities  of  Hanyang  and  Hankow. 


210  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


was  then  proposed,  and  drunk,  the  band  striking 
up  all  the  national  hymns  they  had  on  record. 

It  was  a  great  concert ! 

When  the  turn  came  for  the  brass-band  to 
render  the  Danish  national  anthem,  “King  Chris¬ 
tian,”  once  so  admirably  translated  by  Longfel¬ 
low,  the  Danish  consul  and  I  stepped  up  to  His 
Excellency,  who  patiently  listened  to  the  musical 
crashes  that  symbolize  the  martial  doings  of  our 
Thirty  Year  War  hero.  The  viceroy  whispered 
the  same  compliments  to  us  which  he  had  used 
after  the  performance  of  the  other  anthems,  and 
the  viceregal  hospitality  had  run  its  charming 
course  for  the  nonce. 

A  few  minutes  later,  the  courteous  viceroy, 
according  to  Chinese  custom,  saw  his  guests  to 
the  gate. 

Then,  guard  of  honour,  soldier-lined  streets, 
dispatch-boat,  iced  drinks,  and  back  to  Hankow 
once  more. 

I  still,  for  various  reasons,  remained  another 
fortnight  at  Hankow,  but  after  having  received 
certain  information  from  the  interior,  I  engaged 
a  new  servant,  recommended  by  the  hotel,  and 
departed,  on  the  eve  of  the  17th  of  August,  by 
the  weekly,  Peking-bound  express-train. 


XI 


THE  VENERABLE  CITY  OF 
KAIFENG-FU 

THE  Peking-Hankow,  or  the  Kin-Han, 
railway  line,  is  the  first  great  railway  en¬ 
terprise  in  China,  the  stretch  covering  over 
seven  hundred  miles. 

The  weekly  “ train  de  luxe ”  for  Peking  leaves 
Hankow  at  eleven  in  the  evening.  The  fares  are 
very  high  and  the  compartments  more  than  Puri¬ 
tanic,  so  far  as  upholstering,  light  and  sleepers 
are  concerned. 

On  August  the  18th  in  the  afternoon  we 
Reached  the  city  of  Chengchow,  situated  but  a 
few  miles  south  of  the  Yellow  River.  I  and  my 
new  boy  alighted  here  with  our  luggage  and  our 
outfit  for  a  new  expedition. 

I  found  a  store,  run  by  two  Corsicans,  close  to 
the  little  station,  and  I  was  able  to  get  a  fairly 
clean  room  in  their  house.  It  happened  that  it 
was  not  the  last  time  I  stayed  under  the  hospi¬ 
table  roof  of  Messieurs  Leca  and  Luciani. 

And  now  I  must  disclose  the  reason  for  this 
new  quest  into  the  interior. 

While  still  at  Sian-fu  in  June,  I  had  made  a 


211 


214  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


capital  of  Honan  province — the  original  Middle 
Kingdom. 

The  branch  line  from  Chengchow  to  Kai- 
feng-fu,  part  of  the  unfinished  Pien-lo,  or 
Kaifeng-fu  to  Honan-fu  railway,  had  been 
opened  a  few  months  before,  and  the  following 
noon  consequently  saw  me  off  on  a  most  uninter¬ 
esting  railway-trip  across  a  sandy  plain,  which 
had  more  than  frequently  enough  been  entirely 
under  water,  thanks  to  the  dreaded  inundations 
of  Hwang-ho,  “China’s  Sorrow.” 

Four  hours’  drive  through  heat  and  dust 
brought  us  to  Kaifeng  station,  from  where  a 
cart  took  my  belongings  to  the  best  Chinese 
inn  in  town,  where  the  only  foreigner — as  in 
Sian-fu  the  Chinese  postmaster — had  kindly 
engaged  rooms  for  me  in  response  to  a  wired 
request. 

After  an  excuse  for  an  early  dinner  I  had  my 
American  camp-bed  stretched  out  and  soon  fell 
asleep,  despite  the  uproarious  noise  that  always 
prevails  throughout  the  entire  night  in  all 
Chinese  urban  caravanserais. 

The  next  morning  I  paid  a  visit  to  the  Chinese 
postmaster,  an  Irish  gentleman  by  the  name  of 
Captain  Perry  Ayscough.  I  was  received  with 
great  friendliness  and  we  arranged  to  meet  again 
in  the  afternoon. 

From  the  post-office  I  proceeded  in  a  four- 


THE  VENERABLE  CITY  OF  KAIFENG-FU  215 


coolie  sedan-chair  to  the  Yang  Wu  Chii,  or  pro¬ 
vincial  bureau  of  foreign  affairs,  where  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  meeting  the  interpreter,  Magistrate 
Chang  Shu  Shen.  I  left  cards  with  him  for  the 
new  governor  of  Honan  and  for  various  other 
officials,  and  my  passport  was  inspected.  Mr. 
Chang  had  been  educated  in  the  United  States 
and  spoke  English  with  amazing  fluency. 

When  comparing  Kaifeng,  capital  of  Honan, 
with  Sian,  capital  of  Shensi,  no  end  of  credit  is 
due  to  the  former. 

The  principal  streets  in  the  whole  of  the 
strongly-walled,  extensive  city  are  well-macad¬ 
amized  roads,  lighted  at  night  with  oil-lamps  on 
stands,  and  smartly  policed  by  foreign-drilled 
men,  who  carry — to  the  astonishment  of  the  vis¬ 
itor — rifles  with  fixed  bayonets  all  night.  During 
the  daytime  the  policemen  carry  sticks  with 
which  to  direct  the  heavy  traffic  of  wheelbarrows, 
large  and  small  carts,  private  vehicles,  and  even 
’rickshaws,  which  are  said  to  have  come  with  the 
opening  of  the  railroad. 

The  gates  of  the  city,  which,  like  those  of  all 
other  walled  cities,  are  invariably  locked  and 
bolted  from  sunset  to  sunrise,  are  well-guarded 
by  soldiers  and  police;  and  when  I  entered  the 
city  the  petty-officer  in  charge  asked  to  see  my 
passport. 

Considering  his  inferior  rank,  I  reluctantly 


216  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


declined  to  go  to  that  trouble,  the  passport  lying 
in  one  of  my  boxes,  and  told  him  that  he  could 
send  somebody  to  the  inn  if  he  wished  to  see  it,  as 
I  was  not  in  the  habit  of  making  public  demon¬ 
strations  in  support  of  my  peaceful  intentions 
amidst  the  curious  mob  surrounding  us  in  the 
traffic  under  the  main-gate  of  any  city.  I  event¬ 
ually  pacified  the  strenuous  individual  by  hand¬ 
ing  him  my  red  Chinese  visiting-card,  which 
caused  him  to  bow  and  scrape  like  the  officious 
fellow  he  was. 

As  arranged,  I  met  Mr.  Ayscough  in  the  after¬ 
noon,  and  we  went  for  a  long  ride  in  order  to  give 
me  an  opportunity  to  admire  the  sights  of  the 
provincial  capital. 

It  is  generally  a  little  known  fact  that, 
amongst  her  four  hundred  millions,  China  counts 
a  couple  of  hundred  Chinese  Hebrews. 

According  to  their  own  saying,  the  Israelites 
arrived  in  the  Flowery  Kingdom  during  the 
reign  of  one  of  the  Han  dynasties,  or  between  the 
years  200  b.  c.  and  200  a.  d.  The  Jesuit  writers 
believe  that  the  Jews  came  overland  from  India 
or  Persia  about  a.  d.  65. 

The  greatest  Jewish  colony  in  China  has  al¬ 
ways  been  located  at  Kaifeng-fu.  Yet  Hebrews 
were  found  both  in  Ningpo  and  Hangchow,  in 
the  coast  province  of  Chekiang;  and  in  Sian-fu  a 
Jewish  community  with  a  synagogue  flourished 


THE  VENERABLE  CITY  OF  KAIFENG-FU  217 


at  the  same  time  the  Nestorian  monks  propa¬ 
gated  their  Christianity. 

It  is  quite  a  remarkable  fact  that,  whenever 
we  study  the  earlier  explorers’  notes,  we  almost 
invariably  find  that,  where  Nestorian  Christians 
founded  a  community,  the  Jews  followed,  or 
vice  versa. 

This,  I  believe,  can  hardly  be  due  to  any  feel¬ 
ing  of  fraternity,  but  rather  to  the  fact  that  the 
Chinese  idolaters  of  these  various  places  raised 
no  objection  to  the  presence  of  alien  elements 
and  religions,  which  fact  spread  among  all 
foreigners. 

The  first  Chinese  synagogue  at  Kaifeng-fu 
was  built  in  the  year  1163,  in  other  words  only 
thirty-four  years  after  the  city  had  ceased  to  be 
the  capital  of  the  “Middle  Flowery  Kingdom,” 
an  honour  it  had  held  since  a.  d.  960.  Unfortu¬ 
nately,  succeeding  synagogues  were  destroyed 
several  times  by  the  frightful  inundations  of  the 
Yellow  River. 

The  Jewish  colonies  were  generally  respected 
throughout  the  empire  and  the  members  lived  in 
obedience  to  the  ancient  Law  of  Moses.  The 
Jews,  however,  were  not  favoured  by  luck. 

While  the  outlying  communities  simply  faded 
away  into  nothingness,  even  the  strong  Kaifeng 
colony  became  less  powerful,  the  synagogue  and 
its  members  receiving  what  may  be  called  their 


218  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


death-blow  during  the  great  inundation  in  1849, 
although  Marco  Polo  speaks  about  the  influence 
of  the  Hebrews  during  the  reign  of  Kublai  Khan, 
mentioning  that  they  were  then  at  least  numerous 
enough  to  exercise  considerable  political  control. 

Not  until  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century  did  the  European  and  Chinese  Jews 
come  to  know  of  each  others’  existence. 

The  celebrated  Father  Matteo  Ricci  wrote  the 
following  interesting  account  to  the  pope: 

Shortly  after  a.  d.  1600  a  Chinese  called  on 
Father  Ricci  at  Peking,  having  learned  that 
there  were  aliens  in  the  capital  who  believed  in 
but  one  God,  and  that  without  being  Saracens! 

Father  Ricci  led  his  guest  into  a  Catholic 
chapel,  where  were  hung  one  picture  of  Mary 
with  the  infant  Christ  and  John  the  Baptist,  and 
another  representing  four  of  the  Apostles. 

The  Chinese  visitor  at  once  exclaimed : 

This  picture  is  Rebecca  with  her  sons  Jacob 
and  Esau,  and  that  one  shows  four  of  the  sons  of 
J acob.  But  as  he  had  twelve,  why  do  you  only 
honour  four?” 

This  remark  led  to  lengthy  discussions  which 
eventually  showed  that  Father  Ricci’s  visitor  was 
a  Chinese  Israelite  from  Kaifeng-fu,  who  was  in 
Peking  to  pass  his  literary  examination. 

The  incident  related  led  to  further  communi¬ 
cation  with  Kaifeng-fu,  Julius  Aleni  being  the 


THE  VENERABLE  CITY  OF  KAIFENG-FU  219 


first  foreigner  to  visit  the  Jewish  community  at 
Kaifeng,  in  1613,  after  the  interesting  experience 
of  Father  Ricci,  who  had  died  in  1610. 

Mr.  Ayscough  and  I  rode  through  the  densely 
populated  business  quarter  of  the  city,  our  first 
destination  being  a  Mohammedan  mosque,  where 
most  of  the  remaining  J ewish  relics  are  now  rev¬ 
erently  kept — Moses  being  considered  a  Moslem 
prophet. 

When  Dr.  Martin,  in  1866,  visited  the  Jewish 
colony  at  Kaifeng-fu,  the  few  living  members  of 
that  formerly  so  powerful  body,  amounting  to 
some  three  or  four  hundred  souls,  struggled  for 
bare  life  in  great  distress,  having  even  been 
forced,  as  they  acknowledged  with  shame,  to  sell 
the  timber  and  other  building-material  of  their 
last  synagogue,  which  had  long  been  in  a  dilapi¬ 
dated  state. 

Many  of  the  Jews  had  become  Mohammedans, 
and  a  good  many  of  the  Hebraic  scrolls  and 
signs,  bearing  ancient  inscriptions,  had  been  de¬ 
posited  in  a  mosque  near  by. 

A  few  years  ago  a  society  was  formed  by  the 
Jews  of  various  nations  at  Shanghai  with  a  view 
to  reviving  the  brother  community  at  Kaifeng-fu, 
but  its  success,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascer¬ 
tain,  has  only  been  theoretical. 

The  two  hundred  odd  Jews  that  still  remain  in 
Kaifeng-fu  do  not  even  observe  the  Sabbath,  and 


220  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


are  indeed,  judging  from  their  appearance  and 
lodgings,  reduced  to  a  state  of  abject  poverty 
and  slovenliness  of  faith. 

It  is  a  strange  fact  that,  while  Jews  and  Nesto- 
rians  may  practically  be  considered  extinct  in 
China,  and  while  the  Christianity  of  today  meets 
with  but  limited  success,  Buddhism  and  Moham¬ 
medanism  flourish  as  the  most  popular  of  the 
introduced  religions. 

This  is  even  more  strange  when  we  consider 
that  the  Buddhists  and  Moslems  receive  no  moral 
support  whatever,  while  Christian  converts  are 
protected  by  the  whole  corps  diplomatique  at 
Peking,  with  their  foreign  “drill  and  drum”  to 
support  them,  looking  entirely  apart  from  the 
material  advantages  a  Chinese  Christian  occa¬ 
sionally  obtains  through  influential  and  obliging 
missionaries. 

Mr.  Ayscough,  a  Chinese  postal  clerk,  and  I, 
reached  the  mosque  in  due  course  of  time  and 
were  courteously  received  by  the  mullahs,  who 
invited  us  to  take  a  cup  of  tea. 

Yet,  a  great  disappointment  awaited  us,  for 
when,  through  the  native  clerk,  we  manifested 
our  desire  to  inspect  some  of  the  Jewish  relics, 
the  answer  came  in  the  form  of  a  polite,  but 
firm,  refusal. 

Our  visit  of  Hebrew  intent  to  the  Mussulmen 
thus  turned  out  a  marked  failure — a  word  I  hate! 


THE  VENERABLE  CITY  OF  KAIFENG-FU  221 


Later  on,  I  succeeded  in  finding  out  that, 
about  a  year  earlier,  two  foreigners,  whose  names 
and  nationality  shall  not  he  disclosed  here,  had 
visited  the  mosque  and,  under  one  pretext  or 
another,  had  obtained  a  couple  of  old  Hebraic 
manuscripts  from  the  chief -mull  ah,  against  the 
promise  of  a  considerable  sum  of  money.  The 
foreigners  left,  and  as  the  promised  remittance 
never  arrived,  the  mullahs  eye  all  strange  visitors 
with  polite  suspicion. 

It  also  appears  that  an  American  travelling 
photographer,  named  Bainbridge,  nervous  at 
finding  himself  the  centre  of  a  great  throng  of 
devoted  natives,  the  day  being  Friday,  or  Mos¬ 
lem  Sunday,  had  quite  recently  committed  the 
grave  mistake  of  producing  a  revolver. 

The  praying  Mohammedans  naturally  re¬ 
sented  such  a  warlike  display,  and  a  foreigner  is 
for  the  time  being  anything  but  persona  grata  in 
the  Kaifeng  mosque. 

After  another  cup  of  tea,  we  departed,  sadder 
and  wiser,  and  proceeded  to  the  site  where  the 
large,  beautiful  synagogue  had  once  stood. 

It  was  a  dismal  sight ! 

The  grounds  were  rather  extended,  with  a  pool 
of  stagnant,  green,  slimy  water  in  the  middle, 
but  not  a  brick,  not  a  remnant  of  a  ruin  was  to 
be  seen. 

The  only  visible  mementos  of  dead  glory  were 


222  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


two  memorial  slabs  of  badly-preserved  work¬ 
manship.  They  tell  us,  or  rather  their  inscrip¬ 
tions  do,  that  in  the  year  1163,  when  Long 
Hing  of  the  South  Sung  dynasty  reigned,  and 
Lee- Wei  (Levy)  was  rabbi,  the  first  local 
synagogue  was  built;  they  record  the  faith  of 
Israel  and  some  of  the  history  of  the  Jews  in 
China;  and  they  inform  us  of  the  community’s 
difficulties  after  the  fall  of  the  Ming  dynasty 
in  1644. 

Postmaster  Ayscough  was  mounted  on  a  little 
pony  the  size  of  a  large  St.  Bernard  dog,  while 
I  rode  a  mule  that  would  have  matched  harmoni¬ 
ously  the  average  baby-elephant.  It  must  have 
been  quite  a  diverting  spectacle  to  behold  us 
coming  along. 

We  rode  at  the  foot  of  the  city- wall  to  the 
northeast  corner  of  the  city,  where  we  admired 
the  tall  thirteen-storied  “iron-pagoda,”  which 
must  be  at  least  200  feet  high.  The  natives  call 
it  the  iron-pagoda,  presumably  owing  to  the 
yellow-rusty  colour  of  the  tiles  that  cover  it  from 
the  ground  to  the  top. 

Our  way  home  led  through  the  Manchu  city, 
which  is  supposed,  as  in  other  provincial  capitals, 
to  be  surrounded  by  a  special  wall.  This  was 
also  the  case  here  and  the  gates  were  carefully 
locked  at  night.  The  only  perplexing  circum¬ 
stance  was  that  the  wall  had  tumbled  down  in 


THE  VENERABLE  CITY  OF  KAIFENG-FU  223 


several  places,  giving  free  access  to  the  privacy 
of  the  “governing’5  race.  It  was,  consequently, 
somewhat  difficult  to  understand  why  the  gates 
were  there  at  all,  especially  as  nobody  seemed  to 
make  use  of  them. 

On  our  way  back  we  passed  the  local  Serpen¬ 
tine,  called  the  Dragon  Lake,  and  upon  my  ar¬ 
rival  at  the  inn  I  found  that  Magistrate  Chang 
had  returned  my  visit  during  my  absence. 

I  dined  with  Captain  Ayscough,  who  had  seen 
service  in  British  West  and  South  Africa,  and 
spent  a  very  pleasant  evening  on  the  roof  of  the 
post-office  with  him. 

The  next  morning  a  soldier  called  almost  be¬ 
fore  daylight  with  a  letter  in  flowing  English, 
which  read : 

Foreign  Office, 
Kaifeng,  Honan. 

21st  August,  1907. 

Dear  Mr,  Holm: 

The  directors  of  this  Office  shall  be  glad 
to  meet  you  this  afternoon  at  three  o’clock 
sharp.  I  think  you  better  come  here  in 
your  uniform,  as  I  shall  be  pleased  to 
present  you  to  His  Excellency  the  Gov¬ 
ernor  at  his  yamen  after  the  interview. 

With  cordial  regards, 

Yours  faithfully, 

Chang  Shu  Shen. 


224  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


This  was  quite  an  unexpected  manifestation 
of  gracious  courtesy,  and  I  consequently  set  out 
for  the  provincial  Foreign  Office,  after  tiffin,  in 
my  sedan-chair. 

Arriving  at  the  Yang  Wu  Chii,  I  was  received 
by  Mr.  Chang,  who  conducted  me  to  a  very  airy, 
foreign-style-furnished  reception-hall,  where  sev¬ 
eral  mandarins  were  waiting  for  my  arrival. 

I  was  in  turn  introduced  to  the  old  permanent 
Director  Wu,  of  the  Foreign  Office,  two  or  three 
taotais,  a  couple  of  prefects,  and  some  other 
polite  and  smiling  gentlemen,  all  of  whom  spoke 
only  their  native  tongue. 

Mr.  Chang,  of  course,  acted  as  an  accomplished 
interpreter,  until  the  arrival  of  the  Nieh-tai,  or 
provincial  judge,  the  third  ranking  official  of  the 
province,  was  announced.  I  was  duly  introduced 
to  the  man  who  commands  the  fate,  within  the 
law,  of  so  many  millions.  He  turned  out  to  be 
an  amiable,  jovial,  old  gentleman,  who  char¬ 
acterized  his  own  province  as  being  “very 
conservative”  toward  foreign  ideas,  and  who 
expressed  the  hospitable  opinion,  that  it  was 
about  time  that  the  foreign  missions  gave  up 
their  fruitless  and  peace-endangering  propa¬ 
ganda  in  China. 

The  judge  asked  me  to  sit  down  next  to  him 
at  the  table,  which  was  nicely  arranged  with 
Chinese  porcelain,  sweets,  flowers,  fruits,  native 


THE  VENERABLE  CITY  OF  KAIFENG-FU  225 


cakes,  Manila  Cigars  and  cigarettes.  The  serv¬ 
ants  poured  champagne  and  tea,  and  I  spent 
a  very  enjoyable  time  with  the  hospitable 
mandarins. 

Presently,  Mr.  Chang  and  I  took  our  leave 
and  proceeded  to  His  Excellency  the  Governor’s 
yamen. 

Governor  Yuan  Ta  Hua  had  had  a  very  busy 
day,  for  he  had  taken  over,  the  very  same  morn¬ 
ing,  his  seals  of  office,  and  all  through  the  day  he 
had  received  officials,  clad  in  special  full-dress 
dragon-robes,  who  had  come  from  near  and  far 
to  pay  him  homage. 

Hundreds  of  sedan-chairs  and  private  carts 
belonging  to  the  visiting  mandarins,  were  waiting 
in  the  outer  yard  of  the  yamen,  while  the  inner 
courts  and  the  ante-chambers  were  full  of  gos¬ 
siping,  gesticulating  mandarins,  both  civil  and 
military,  of  various  ranks. 

After  waiting  a  few  minutes,  Mr.  Chang  con¬ 
ducted  me  to  a  part  of  the  yamen  built  in  semi- 
foreign  style,  being  the  wing  occupied  late  in 
1901  by  the  emperor  and  the  empress-dowager 
during  their  short  stay  on  the  return  from 
Sian-fu  to  Peking. 

His  Excellency  greeted  me  on  the  doorsteps 
with  that  politeness  which  distinguishes  the  well- 
bred  Chinese,  and  conducted  me  to  a  room  almost 
European  in  style,  where  he  motioned  me  to  take 


226  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


a  seat  next  to  his  and  on  his  left  side,  according 
to  Chinese  custom.  After  much  apparent  re¬ 
luctance,  Mr.  Chang,  induced  by  the  governor, 
sat  down  on  the  latter’s  right-hand  side. 

The  governor  opened  the  conversation  with 
various  questions  concerning  Denmark,  my  na¬ 
tive  country,  at  the  same  time  occupying  himself 
with  the  cutting  off  of  the  end  of  a  cigar,  which 
he  handed  to  me — the  cigar,  not  the  tip — together 
with  a  box  of  Japanese  matches. 

I  had  thought  that  the  interview  would  last 
some  ten  minutes,  but  in  spite  of  the  fatigue  of 
the  day,  from  which  His  Excellency  must  un¬ 
doubtedly  have  suffered,  he  kept  me,  over  two 
cigars  and  several  glasses  of  liqueur,  for  an  hour 
and  a  half. 

The  governor  displayed  considerable  knowl¬ 
edge  of  foreign  politics,  and  was  especially  in¬ 
terested  in  Russia,  as  he  had  for  several  years 
resided  as  taotai  in  Manchuria. 

Eventually  he  caused  a  large  geographical 
globe  to  be  brought  in  so  that  we  might  better  be 
able  to  understand  each  other  while  recasting 
the  map  of  the  world  according  to  our  likes  and 
dislikes. 

The  governor  said  that  he  cherished  the  hope 
some  day  to  visit  Europe  and  America,  but  was 
evidently  afraid  that  unless  he  happened  to  be 
appointed  minister  plenipotentiary  to  some  for- 


THE  VENERABLE  CITY  OF  KAIFENG-FU  227 


eign  court,  his  official  duties  at  home  would 
occupy  all  his  time. 

The  former  governor  of  Honan,  whom  Yuan 
had  succeeded  that  same  day,  had  been  promoted 
to  the  viceroyalty  of  Kwangtung  with  residence 
at  Canton. 

At  5.30  p.  m.  Mr.  Chang,  who  was  very  tired 
after  acting  such  a  long  time  as  interpreter,  and 
I  took  leave  of  the  hospitable  governor  and  sub¬ 
sequently  parted  company  in  the  outer  courtyard. 

Returning  to  the  inn,  I  found  that  my  boy, 
who  was  of  course  supposed  to  stay  home  and 
watch  over  my  belongings,  had  gone  out  without 
leaving  word  with  anybody ;  that  is,  according  to 
the  version  of  the  fat  landlord. 

He  had  locked  the  door  with  one  of  my 
Chinese  padlocks  and  taken  the  key  with  him.  I 
had  the  door  to  my  room  lifted  off  its  hinges, 
and  found  that  my  servant  had  taken  his  belong¬ 
ings  with  him,  besides  some  stray  Sycee  of 
mine,  which,  together  with  the  advance  I  had 
granted  him  at  Hankow,  amounted  to  about  half 
a  hundred  dollars. 

That  was  the  last  I  heard  or  saw  of  the  well- 
recommended  Hankow  boy  who  was  to  have  been 
my  sole  consolation  and  factotum  on  the  long 
journey  back  to  Sian-fu. 

Yet  I  knew  that  it  would  be  hopeless  to  en¬ 
deavour  to  catch  him  even  through  the  Chinese 


228  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


police.  He  was  undoubtedly  already  on  his  way 
to  Hankow,  Habana,  Harlem,  or  Halicarnassus; 
and  I  gave  him  up  as  a  bad  lot. 

For  the  rest  of  my  stay,  due  to  the  absconding 
of  my  boy,  Captain  Ayscough  generously  invited 
me  to  share  my  meals  with  him  at  the  post-office. 

The  next  four  days  I  roamed  about  the  city  a 
great  deal,  sightseeing  and  photographing. 

I  succeeded  in  climbing  the  iron-pagoda,  and 
twice  visited  the  railway-station,  a  couple  of 
miles  south  of  the  city,  where  three  Frenchmen, 
amongst  them  the  superintendent,  the  amiable 
Monsieur  Paris — a  very  acceptable  and  easily 
remembered  name  for  a  Frenchman — resided. 

The  life  to  be  observed  at  Chinese  railway- 
stations  is  indeed  rich  in  colour  and  action,  and 
highly  picturesque. 

Long  before  the  train  is  expected  to  arrive, 
hordes  of  coolies,  cartmen,  porters,  passers-by, 
and  beggars  in  rags  and  vermin,  assemble  on  the 
unprotected,  open  platform,  where  a  few  soldiers 
prevent  the  crowd  from  actually  camping  on  the 
rails.  When  the  train,  generally  full,  has  ar¬ 
rived,  the  tumult  and  din  and  confusion  are 
indescribable,  and  can  only  be  compared  with 
Biblical  Babel. 

The  struggling,  tired  traveller  invariably  falls 
prey  to  some  of  the  local  ragamuffins  after  much 
useless  shouting  and  resistance.  The  children 


THE  VENERABLE  CITY  OF  KAIFENG-FU  229 


cry  aloud  and  get  lost  in  a  kicking  forest  of  legs. 
The  cartman  yells  out  his  fares  to  town.  And 
the  three  and  a  half  policemen  get  lost  in  the 
uproarious  sea  of  heads  with  or  without  hats,  and 
amidst  the  thousands  of  pieces  of  luggage  that 
sway  to  and  fro  under  a  burning  sun,  visible  a 
little  while  ago,  but  now  obscured  behind  the 
dust-cloud  raised  by  the  crowd  of  local  vampires 
and  their  maddened  victims. 

After  a  week  spent  at  Kaifeng-fu,  once  capital 
of  the  Middle  Kingdom,  I  bade  adieu  to  Mr. 
Ayscough  and  Mr.  Chang,  and  returned  to 
Chengchow,  where  I  again  put  up  at  the  small 
Corsican  store. 

At  Chengchow  I  received  a  telegram  from  Mr. 
Fong  at  Sian-fu  which  induced  me  to  make  ar¬ 
rangements  for  a  speedy  departure  for  Shensi. 
I  engaged  a  large,  strong  cart,  which  could  just 
hold  my  boxes  and  cases,  but  I  found  it  impos¬ 
sible  to  get  hold  of  any  riding  animal,  not  even 
an  old  mule. 

Accordingly,  I  addressed  myself  to  the  magis¬ 
trate  of  Chengchow,  the  fat  Mr.  Yih,  to  whom  I 
had  a  letter  of  introduction  from  Kaifeng.  Mr. 
Yih,  who  was  the  first  but  not  the  last  official 
with  whom  I  conducted  my  business  in  Chinese 
without  an  interpreter — a  performance  which 
must  have  been  a  treat  to  an  educated  native’s 
ear — was  very  accommodating  and  offered  to 


230  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


lend  me  one  of  the  ponies  belonging  to  his  yamen. 

He  also  promised  me  a  letter  that  would  en¬ 
sure  me  the  loan  of  a  fresh  government  pony  at 
every  stage,  all  the  way  to  Sian-fu. 

I  could  do  nothing  better  than  accept  with 
thanks,  Mr.  Yih  telling  me  that  should  any  of 
the  members  of  my  military  escort  ask  for  money 
to  pay  for  fodder  or  the  like,  it  was  my  solemn 
duty  to  refuse,  as  the  various  yamens  en  route 
would  bear  that  small  expense. 

As  I  was  now  without  interpreter  or  boy,  it 
goes  without  saying  that  I  could  not  well  manage 
without  a  small  military  escort,  numbering  from 
two  to  five  soldiers,  especially  as  these  warriors 
when  returning  to  their  cities  had  to  bring  back 
my  borrowed  mounts. 


XII 


TRYING  RETURN-JOURNEY  TO 

SIAN-FU 

THE  stages  from  Chengchow  to  Sian-fu 
when  travelling  with  ease  number  fifteen, 
meaning  an  average  of  some  twenty-four 
miles  per  day. 

As  it  was  sometimes  necessary  to  change  the 
soldiers  and  my  pony  twice  a  day,  I  had  the  un¬ 
diluted  joy  of  trying  more  than  a  score  of  differ¬ 
ent  steeds,  and  it  is  assuredly  not  my  fault  if  this 
experience  did  not  turn  me  into  a  rough-rider. 

There  were  all  sizes,  all  manners,  and  all  col¬ 
ours  of  ponies;  there  were  all  kinds  of  speeds, 
and  all  sorts  of  characters;  there  was  wildness, 
whimsicality  and  viciousness,  and  there  was 
blindness,  and  lameness,  and  sunstroke.  There 
was  caprice  and  disobedience,  and,  invariably,  an 
enormous  appetite! 

It  was,  in  short,  an  equestrian  experience  of 
such  a  wide  scope  that  I  will  sacrifice  much  not 
to  have  it  repeated. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  I  had  nobody  to  assist 
me,  the  first  four  days  were  easy  sailing.  The 
reason  was,  that  there  are  a  good  many  Euro- 


231 


232  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


peans — chiefly  Frenchmen,  Belgians,  and  Ital¬ 
ians — living  between  Chengchow  and  Honan-fu, 
occupied  with  the  construction  of  the  Pien-lo 
Railway.  The  name  Pien-lo  is  derived  from  the 
classical  names  of  Kaifeng-fu  and  Honan-fu, 
which  were,  respectively,  Pienfang  and  Loyang. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  August  28th  I  left 
Chengchow  on  an  innocent,  little,  brown  pony, 
together  with  a  solitary  baggage-cart,  which 
was  guarded  by  three  of  Mr.  Yih’s  formidable 
soldiers. 

The  heat  during  the  whole  return- journey  to 
Sian-fu  was  simply  terrible,  especially  so  in  the 
middle  of  the  day. 

The  only  really  refreshing  eatable  to  be  ob¬ 
tained  along  the  road  was  watermelon. 

In  Shanghai  I  would  never  have  dared  touch  a 
bit  of  melon,  as  the  vendours  keep  the  opened 
fruit  fresh  looking  by  pouring  dirty  river-water 
over  the  pieces,  thus  causing  innumerable  cases 
of  cholera;  but  on  the  high-roads  in  the  interior, 
under  a  brazen  sun,  the  matter  changes  aspect. 

Long  hours  on  horseback,  in  100  degrees  and 
more,  easily  teach  the  rider  what  real  thirst  is, 
and  the  heart,  or  perhaps  rather  the  parched 
tongue,  jumps  with  joy  when  a  watermelon- 
stand  under  a  solitary  shady  tree  heaves  into 
sight. 

I  usually  bought  the  whole  fruit,  which  I  cut 


TRYING  RETURN-JOURNEY  TO  SIAN-FU  233 


into  pieces  myself  with  the  pedlar’s  murderous 
machete.  I  then  buried  the  frontal  half  of  my 
scorched  head  in  a  large  piece  of  the  white,  pink 
or  yellow  fruit,  giving  away  what  I  could  not 
eat,  and  surprising  the  pony  by  putting  the 
leathery  peel  into  his  burning  mouth. 

The  first  night  out,  I  once  again  spent  in  a 
Chinese  wayside  inn. 

It  was,  to  say  the  least,  very  troublesome,  after 
many  hours  in  the  saddle,  personally  to  have  to 
prepare  the  simple  evening  meal  of  eggs,  cocoa 
and  Chinese  bread,  to  ulay  the  table,”  to  make 
the  camp-bed  for  the  night — in  short,  to  do  all 
those  innumerable  small  things  which  form  the 
duty  of  a  servant,  who  has  been  able  to  slumber 
all  day  in  the  baggage-cart. 

The  next  day  I  rode  along  the  railway-line  as 
far  as  Szeshuiho,  to  which  point  the  line  was 
practically  completed. 

While  my  cart  and  the  new  soldiers  from 
Yungyang  took  the  main-road,  I  followed  the 
intended  railroad;  and  at  noon,  when  reaching 
an  almost  finished  tunnel  under  a  small  Loess- 
covered  mountain,  I  met  some  Italian  contrac¬ 
tors,  who  could  speak  no  French,  but  who  were 
kind  enough  to  invite  me  to  tiffin. 

They  lived  like  camping  soldiers,  but  seemed 
to  thrive  all  right  in  their  strange  and  desolate 
surroundings. 


234  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


From  the  encampment  of  the  Italians  I  rode 
down  to  the  Yellow  River,  where  they  had  told 
me  that  I  might  follow  a  path  to  Kung-hsien,  the 
day’s  destination. 

If  I  had  known  that  path  from  previous  ex¬ 
perience,  I  should  not  have  ventured  to  follow  it 
for  some  fifteen  miles,  as  I  did,  on  a  giddy 
yamen  pony. 

It  was  a  very  risky  experiment  indeed.  The 
path,  in  most  places,  was  only  four  or  five  feet 
wide,  thus  making  it  impossible  for  two  riders  to 
pass  one  another.  The  Chinese  I  met  on  mule  or 
donkey  all  had  to  dismount  in  response  to  orders 
shouted  by  the  single  soldier  who  had  come  with 
me,  and  retrace  their  steps  to  some  recess  in  the 
vertical  Loess-wall,  where  I  might  be  able  to 
pass  them. 

The  pony  walked  very  slowly,  inspired  by 
sheer  fright,  suspiciously  looking  down  the  steep 
incline  of  some  twenty  feet  into  the  swift,  yellow 
current  of  the  vehement  Hwang-ho. 

Arrived  at  Kung-hsien,  I  was  hospitably 
treated  by  Monsieur  Jacquet,  now  engineer-in¬ 
chief,  then  chef -de-section  of  the  Pienlo.  M. 
J acquet,  a  very  witty  Parisian,  was  living  in  a 
large,  deserted  Confucian  temple. 

The  next  afternoon  we  crossed  the  river 
Lo-Ho,  where  I  saw  the  engineers  busily  en¬ 
gaged  in  the  construction  of  a  railway  bridge  of 


TRYING  RETURN-JOURNEY  TO  SIAN-FU  235 


considerable  length.  In  the  evening,  after  a  very- 
hot  and  uneventful  day,  we  arrived  at  the  district 
town  of  Yenshih,  where  I  was  invited  to  stay 
with  the  chief  of  the  third  and  last  section  of  the 
Pienlo,  M.  Squilbin,  and  his  charming  wife. 
They  had  been  able  to  secure  a  spacious  Chinese 
house,  which  had  been  very  comfortably  fixed  up. 

The  magistrate  of  Yenshih  was  unfortunately 
away  and  his  deputy,  reported  to  be  an  “old 
fool,”  seemed  to  have  some  scruples  concerning 
furnishing  us  with  a  pony.  I  told  him  that  I  was 
quite  prepared  to  walk  to  Honan-fu,  wherefrom 
I  would  do  myself  the  pleasure  to  report  the  mat¬ 
ter  by  telegraph  to  his  superiors  at  Kaifeng-fu. 
This  seemed  to  alter  the  good  man’s  intentions, 
and  ten  minutes  later  a  very  good  pony  was 
brought  by  a  soldier  to  the  house  of  M.  Squilbin. 

Shortly  after  a  hearty  breakfast  I  departed, 
together  with  a  soldier  on  another  pony — the  cart 
having  started  ahead — and,  enjoying  a  pleasant 
ride,  the  day  being  reasonably  cool  with  an  occa¬ 
sional  shower,  I  arrived  in  the  late  afternoon  at 
the  temple  Ta-tze,  in  the  eastern  suburb  of 
Honan-fu,  after  an  absence  of  over  three  months’ 
travel. 

Two  Italians,  engaged  by  the  Pienlo  as  west¬ 
ern  outposts,  were  living  in  the  large  temple, 
which  housed  more  than  sixty  bonzes. 

I  dined  with  the  Italian  pioneers,  who  then 


236  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


obtained  permission  from  the  prior  for  me  to  stay 
in  the  temple  for  a  couple  of  days. 

I  was  allotted  two  large  rooms  facing  the  main 
court-yard,  and  I  feel  confident  that  the  larger 
of  the  rooms  formerly  served  the  monks  as  a 
refectory. 

The  next  morning,  Sunday,  I  hired  a  sedan- 
chair  and  visited  the  prefect  and  the  magistrate, 
who  both  returned  the  visit  later  in  the  day.  I 
had  tiffin  with  my  friends,  Dr.  Beinhoff  and 
Pastor  Anderson  in  the  Swedish  mission,  and 
later  on  returned  to  the  temple.  After  having 
killed  a  couple  of  crawling  scorpions,  I  turned  in 
early  for  a  long  sleep.  But  the  night  proved  too 
hot  for  restful  sleep,  and  the  refectory  was,  alas, 
not  fitted  up  with  electric  fans. 

On  the  2nd  of  September,  Dr.  Beinhoff  and 
I  made  a  very  interesting  trip  to  the  Lungmen, 
or  Dragon  Gate,  about  ten  miles  south  of 
Honan-fu.  Five  li  south  of  the  city  we  crossed 
the  river  Lo  Ho,  thence  proceeding  among  fields 
innumerable,  showing  the  year’s  second  crop  of 
millet  and  maize. 

On  the  way  to  Lungmen  the  traveller  passes  a 
most  unique  temple,  dedicated  to  the  war-god 
Kwan-ti.  This  redoubtable  deity  was  once  a 
great  general,  but  he  became  a  leader  of  sedition 
against  his  emperor,  who  caused  him  to  be  de¬ 
capitated  when  he  had  been  caught. 


(Top)  Old  bridge  near  Honan-fti. 

( Bottom )  One  of  my  caravan-carts,  flying  the  “Dannebrog.” 


TRYING  RETURN-JOURNEY  TO  SIAN-FU  237 


Still,  Kwan-ti  had  been  a  famous  warrior  and 
had  formerly  rendered  great  service  to  the 
throne.  In  due  course  he  was,  consequently,  ele¬ 
vated,  through  posthumous  honours,  to  the  rank 
of  a  deity,  and  his  body  was  reverently  cut  into 
half  a  dozen  pieces  and  buried  in  various  parts 
of  the  empire. 

The  part  buried  in  the  temple  close  to 
Honan-fu  is  the  head,  and  the  priests  of  the 
temple  swear  that  since  the  burial  of  the  sacred 
cranium  under  a  little  artificial  hillock  in  the 
temple  grounds,  no  human  being  has  set  foot  in¬ 
side  the  high  wall  that  surrounds  the  burial- 
place  itself. 

It  happened  that  I  found  a  small  peep-hole  in 
the  wall,  but  there  was  absolutely  nothing  of 
interest  to  see — only  the  grass-covered  grave 
mound. 

The  temple  itself  was  very  beautiful  and  well- 
kept.  Images  of  Kwan-ti  were  to  be  seen  every¬ 
where.  He  was  sculptured  in  the  fury  of  a 
Berserk,  and  he  was  seen  quietly  reading  in 
candle-light.  A  third  statue  of  carved  wood 
showed  us  how  the  war-god  looked  when  he  slept. 

The  emperor  visited  the  Kwan-ti  burial-temple 
on  his  way  back  to  Peking  from  Sian;  and  the 
empress-dowager,  as  is  her  wont,  presented  a 
couple  of  signs  with  hand-painted  characters. 

Another  short  hour  brought  us  to  the  Dragon 


238  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


Gate,  which  takes  its  name  from  a  peculiar  gate¬ 
like  opening  in  a  low  range  of  mountains,  per¬ 
mitting  an  affluent  of  the  Lo  Ho  to  flow  through. 

The  mountains  are  called  Sung  Shan,  and  are, 
at  Lungmen,  strikingly  remarkable  for  the  hun¬ 
dreds  of  caves,  with  Buddhas  and  other  idols  of 
all  sizes,  that  have  been  carved  there,  most  prob¬ 
ably  during  one  of  the  periods  when  Loyang 
was  the  Tang  or  Wei  capital  of  the  Middle 
Kingdom. 

The  workmanship  of  these  magnificent  sculp¬ 
tures  indicate  Indian  influence,  and  it  is,  of 
course,  by  no  means  unlikely  that  the  numerous 
statues  were  executed  by  Indian  sculptors  or 
their  Chinese  pupils. 

The  main-road,  as  already  indicated,  from 
Fancheng  on  the  Han  river  passes  by  here  from 
the  robber  districts  towards  the  south. 

F acing  the  river,  and  built  above  a  natural  hot 

spring,  we  visited  an  old  temple,  where  Dr.  Bein- 

hoff  and  I  got  a  few  eggs  and  some  fruit  and  tea. 

Behind  the  temple  are  situated  the  three  largest 

caves,  which  not  only  contain  colossal  Buddhas, 

but  the  walls  of  which  are  literallv  covered  with 

«/ 

images  and  scenes  sculptured  out  of  the  soft  rock. 

Walking  southward  along  the  road  we  passed 
hundreds  of  smaller  caves  at  all  altitudes,  each  of 
which  contains  at  least  one  image. 

Further  down,  but  unprotected  by  any  cave, 


TRYING  RETURN-JOURNEY  TO  SIAN-FU  239 


the  roof  having  probably  fallen  in,  is  a  colossal 
Buddha  hewn  out  of  a  vertical  mountain  wall, 
and  flanked  by  two  minor  deities  or  Bodhisatvas. 
The  superhumanly  inspiring  expression  of  wis¬ 
dom  and  good-will  of  this  fifty-foot  statue  even 
outdoes  that  of  the  younger  bronze  Buddha,  the 
Daibutsu,  at  Kamakura  in  Japan,  not  far  from 
Yokohama. 

While  I  had  not  been  able  to  photograph  in 
any  of  the  caves,  the  light  permitted  me  to  obtain 
a  picture  of  this  splendid  piece  of  ancient  sculp¬ 
ture — my  photograph  having  been  the  first  ever 
published,  I  am  told,  of  the  great  Lungmen 
Buddha. 

This  photograph,  I  believe,  is  the  one  used  by 
the  late  sinologue,  Professor  Edouard  Chavan- 
nes,  in  his  imposing  volume  anent  his  travels  in 
central  and  northern  China  during  1907,  a  work 
that  was  generously  subventioned  by  the  gov¬ 
ernment  of  France. 

Alas — for  the  splendours  of  Lungmen! 

They  are,  I  fear,  gone  forever. 

All  the  hundreds  of  statues,  in  the  hoped-for 
safety  of  their  caves,  were  in  a  perfect  state  of 
preservation  when  Chavannes  and  Alexieff  and 
I  visited  them. 

But  it  was  only  a  year  or  two  later,  that 
chopped-off  heads  of  Chinese  statuary — almost 
all  loot  from  Lungmen — were  being  offered  for 


240  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


sale  in  Europe  and  America  to  private  collectors 
and  aid-museums. 

It  was  generally  rumoured  that  Japanese,  and 
a  few  French,  vandals  had  visited  the  sacred 
place,  then  and  there  indulging  in  wholesale 
decapitation. 

Heads  of  desecrated  Chinese  statuary  may 
thus  be  admired,  with  or  without  qualms,  in  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  in  New  York, 
thanks  to  the  accommodating  enterprise  of  Sir 
Purdon  Clarke’s  successors,  as  well  as  in  other 
museums  of  great  American  cities. 

It  is  as  inconceivable,  as  it  is  discouraging, 
that  the  officials  of  Honan-fu — but  a  few  miles 
north  from  Lungmen — could  not  have  coped 
with  the  alien  marauders,  arrested  them,  and 
turned  them  over  to  their  respective  legations  in 
Peking  for  punishment. 

A  society  for  the  conservation  of  Chinese  na¬ 
tional  monuments  was  finally  formed  by  natives 
and  foreigners  in  China  about  a  decade  ago — 
after  the  Lungmen  decapitations,  however. 

The  Shanghai  branch  of  the  Royal  Asiatic 
Society,  in  its  annual  journal  for  1912,  published 
a  contribution  on  China’s  monuments  by  an 
American  reporter,  Mr.  Frederick  McCormick, 
in  which  occurs  the  following  choice  passage: 

“ — at  Hsian-fu  ( Sian-fu )  is  the  Peilin. — It 
was  to  this  place  that  the  Governor  of  Shensi, 


The  colossal,  rock-hewn  Lungmen  Buddha  in  Honan  is  nearly 
sixty  feet  in  height.  (This  is  believed  to  be  the  first  success¬ 
ful  photograph  ever  taken  of  that  superb  piece  of  millenary 
sculpture.) 


TRYING  RETURN-JOURNEY  TO  SIAN-FU  241 


1908,  carried  the  Nestorian  Tablet  to  prevent 
threatened  depredation  by  a  foreign  adventurer, 
and  there  it  remains  honoured — 

Recalling  that  Mr.  McCormick  lunched  with 
me  at  Peking  in  the  fall  of  1907,  and  that  he  took 
it  upon  himself  to  praise  my  efforts  in  connection 
with  the  Nestorian  Monument,  which,  I  was  able 
to  tell  him,  had  then  been  put  under  roof — after 
three  centuries  of  exposure — thanks  to  my  expe¬ 
dition,  the  above  quotation  seems  to  betray  bias 
on  the  writer’s  part. 

Incidentally,  the  Monument,  as  we  shall  see, 
was  removed  in  1907,  and  not  in  1908,  into  the 
Peilin  of  Sian-fu. 

Sic  transit — 

Late  in  the  afternoon,  Dr.  Beinhoff  and  I 
were  back  in  Honan-fu  after  a  most  interesting 
outing. 

Three  days  later  I  departed  from  the  ancient 
temple  in  the  eastern  suburb  after  presenting  the 
prior  of  the  monastery  with  a  sum  of  money  for 
repairing  his  principal  altar. 

Passing  through  the  city,  I  stopped  to  say 
good-bye  to  the  Swedish  missionaries  before 
starting  my  long  journey  on  the  high-road  to 
Sian-fu. 

The  road  was  the  same  I  had  traversed  three 
months  earlier  under  considerably  more  favour¬ 
able  conditions.  The  temperature  is  ever  so 


242  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


much  more  endurable  in  May  than  in  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  September,  and  what  made  the  matter 
worse  was  the  fact  that  I,  being  all  alone,  would 
have  to  make  my  own  “chow”  and  bed  nightly 
without  help  after  a  dozen  hours  in  the  saddle 
under  a  burning  sun. 

Exploring  is  not  all  play ! 

The  Chinese  inns  along  the  route  seemed  to  be, 
if  that  were  possible,  more  dirty  than  ever,  for 
besides  vermin  and  mosquitoes,  one  had  now  to 
suffer  from  the  nocturnal  visits  of  large,  black 
beetles  and  malodorous  bugs.  No  kind  of  insect- 
powder,  nor  even  a  candle  burning  all  night, 
could  keep  away  the  “unwelcome  guests.”  Scor¬ 
pions  also  were  conspicuous  members  of  the 
fauna. 

At  the  city  of  Wen-hsien,  one  day  east  of 
Tungkwan,  I  once  more  encountered  the  impo¬ 
lite  inn-keeper  of  my  former  visit ;  and,  as  I  was 
too  tired  to  quarrel  with  the  fellow,  I  rode  down 
to  a  newly-erected,  clean-looking  Taoist  temple, 
where  the  kind  chief-priest  was  only  too  willing 
to  accommodate  me. 

The  old  priest  allotted  me  a  nice,  airy  room 
and  assisted  me  in  every  way. 

After  supper  I  gave  him  a  Manila  cheroot, 
and,  the  temple  being  situated  on  the  very  bank 
of  the  Hwang-ho,  we  took  a  small  evening 
promenade  together,  keeping  up  the  conversation 


TRYING  RETURN-JOURNEY  TO  SIAN-FU  243 


as  best  we  could.  It  appeared  that  a  Japanese 
major  of  the  General  Staff  had  stayed  in  the 
temple  once — I  was  shown  his  card — the  priest 
carefully  folding  my  own  card  which  I  gave 
him  into  a  piece  of  silk,  together  with  that  of  the 
J apanese  intelligence  seeker. 

We  drank  several  dozen  cups  of  weak  tea  to¬ 
gether  in  my  room;  but  when  I  wanted  to  turn 
in,  I  could  not  induce  the  old  ecclesiastic  to  retire, 
whereupon  I  took  the  liberty  of  beginning  to 
undress. 

The  interpreter  of  the  religion  of  Lao-tse  now 
displayed  the  keenest  interest  in  every  garment 
I  laid  aside,  and  was  evidently  quite  taken  aback 
when  he  perceived  that  I  wore  long  stockings 
under  the  riding-puttees.  My  rubber  sponge  he 
unquestionably  considered  one  of  the  wonders  of 
the  universe.  Not  until  I  had  actually  covered 
my  face  with  the  blanket  did  the  old  man  in  blue 
disappear  in  the  direction  of  his  own  den. 

The  next  day,  the  Loess  ravines  being  very 
deep  and  full  of  water  in  many  places,  we  had  to 
haul  the  cart  up  onto  the  surface  of  the  surround¬ 
ing  country.  This  was  quite  a  job,  the  cart  being 
heavy  and  the  incline  steep,  but  it  was  essential, 
as  severe  rain-showers  had  made  the  roads  impas¬ 
sable  for  miles. 

We  stayed  overnight  in  Tungkwan,  and  the 
next  day  departed  early,  after  some  friction  in 


244  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


the  yamen  concerning  my  mount,  the  reason  be¬ 
ing  that  we  were  now  back  in  the  province  of 
Shensi,  where  the  Honan  officials,  of  course,  had 
no  authority. 

I  later  on  found  that  the  magistrate  had  tele¬ 
graphed  to  the  governor  at  Sian-fu  for  permis¬ 
sion  to  lend  me  a  pony,  a  permission  that  was 
instantly  granted.  Hence  the  delay — as  usual 
excused  with  polite  lies. 

When  about  fifteen  miles  west  of  Tungkwan, 
riding  along  a  wide,  short  chaussee ,  edged  with 
beautiful  willows,  that  leads  from  the  famous 
temple  at  Hwayinmiao  to  the  district-town  of 
Hwayin-hsien.  I  observed  a  very  picturesque 
cavalcade  of  some  two  hundred  horsemen  with 
lances  and  banners  coming  towards  me  in  a 
sharp  trot. 

The  horsemen,  so  far  as  I  was  able  to  ascer¬ 
tain,  formed  the  bodyguard  of  a  Tatar  general 
who,  followed  by  his  staff,  rode  after  the  troop, 
clad  in  a  crimson  coat  and  wearing  the  second- 
class,  or  coral  button,  with  peacock-feather,  in  his 
hat.  He  was  said  to  come  from  Chinese  Turke¬ 
stan,  which  was  very  well  borne  out  by  the  fact 
that  his  women-folk  followed  in  two  rickety, 
Russian  troikas . 

When  passing  the  general,  followed  by  my 
single  soldier,  I  walked  my  pony,  and  saluted, 
the  general  waving  his  hand  and  bowing. 


{Top)  The  graceful  Taoist  Temple  of  Hwayinmiao  in  Shensi, 
opposite  one  of  China’s  five  Holy  Mountains. 

( Bottom )  Three  prisoners,  the  central  figures  with  shackled 
ankles,  being  convoyed  into  exile  by  soldiers. 


TRYING  RETURN-JOURNEY  TO  SIAN-FU  245 


His  cavalcade  and  the  troikas  formed  one  of 
the  most  curious  pictures  I  have  seen  in  the  in¬ 
terior  of  China. 

As  formerly  mentioned,  the  road  from  Tung- 
kwan  as  far  as  Sian  is  fairly  level — having  left 
the  Loess-regions  of  western  Honan. 

The  country  is  well  cultivated  and  various 
kinds  of  millet,  maize,  cotton  with  yellow  and 
pink  flowers,  and  a  variety  of  fruit,  were  in  evi¬ 
dence  everywhere,  representing  the  second  har¬ 
vest  of  the  year. 

Wild  persimmon-trees  were  growing  along 
the  roadside,  and  the  golden  fruits  amongst  the 
dark  green  foliage  added  to  the  charm  of  the 
surroundings. 

After  a  quick  ride  from  Weinan-hsien,  on  Sep¬ 
tember  14th,  I  arrived  at  the  imperial  baths  at 
Lintung  early  in  the  afternoon,  where  my  inter¬ 
preter,  Mr.  Fong,  was  awaiting  me  in  response 
to  instructions  wired  from  Tungkwan. 

I  sent  my  card  to  the  magistrate ;  and  later  the 
minor  official  in  charge  of  the  baths  once  more 
permitted  me  the  use  of  the  empress-dowager’s 
pavilion. 

The  magistrate  was  kind  enough  to  lend  me  a 
cook  who  made  an  excellent  dish  of  chicken-soup 
and  rice.  This  was  indeed  very  elaborate — at  any 
rate  it  was  my  first  proper  meal  after  ten  days  of 
continual  hardships  and  renewed  egg-diet. 


246  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


After  a  quiet  siesta  and  a  prolonged  bath  in 
the  big  grotto,  Mr.  Fong,  who  conveyed  the 
kind  regards  of  Mr.  Schaumloeffel,  related  to 
me  his  experiences  since  we  parted  company 
about  two  months  earlier  at  Kingtzekwan  in  the 
mountains. 

He  reported  that  he  had  travelled  straight  to 
the  Fuping  stone-quarries,  where  he  and  the 
stone-cutter  had  obtained — fresh  from  the  rock — - 
a  suitable  slab  of  stone,  which  they  had  then 
under  great  difficulties,  due  to  the  bad  state  of 
the  roads,  caused  to  be  transported  to  the  temple 
outside  the  suburban  west-gate  of  Sian.  They 
had  naturally,  for  more  than  one  reason,  avoided 
transporting  the  slab  through  the  city  proper. 

Owing  to  the  enormous  transport  difficulties 
the  stone  did  not  arrive  at  its  destination  until 
the  end  of  August.  The  contractor  had  then 
engaged  the  services  of  three  other  stone-cutters, 
and  between  the  four  of  them  they  had  finished 
polishing  the  stone  in  two  days’  time. 

One  of  the  men,  who  was  an  artist  and  an  ex¬ 
pert  in  “stone-dragons,”  confined  himself  to 
sculpturing  the  six  entwined  dragons,  forming 
the  top  of  the  Monument ;  another  one,  who  had 
a  better  education  than  his  fellows,  undertook  the 
chiselling  of  the  Syriac  characters  and  the  re¬ 
markable  Christian  cross  at  the  top;  while  the 
remaining  two  confined  themselves  to  the  princi- 


TRYING  RETURN-JOURNEY  TO  SIAN-FU  247 


pal  inscription  of  Chinese  characters  in  their 
splendid  Tang  calligraphy. 

Mr.  Fong  told  me  that  he  was  very  tired  of 
living  in  the  old  temple,  which  was  full  of  scor¬ 
pions  and  rats,  and  I  consoled  him  by  saying 
that  our  stay  in  Sian-fu  would  not  be  of  long 
duration. 

The  next  day,  being  Sunday,  I  remained 
quietly  at  Lintung-hsien,  enjoying  what  I  ven¬ 
tured  to  consider  a  well-deserved  day’s  rest. 

The  three  weeks  behind  me,  since  I  had  left 
Chengchow  on  my  return-trip  to  Sian-fu,  were 
inescapably  the  hardest  I  had  ever  gone  through 
so  far  as  privation,  lack  of  sleep,  nourishment, 
and  ordinary  comfort,  as  well  as  exhausting  heat, 
were  concerned. 


XIII 

SECOND  STAY  AT  SIAN-FU 


THE  following  morning,  the  16th  of  Sep¬ 
tember,  I  left  the  baggage  with  Mr.  F ong, 
to  be  taken  to  the  capital,  while  I  myself 
borrowed  an  old,  lame  pony  from  the  yamen. 
This  excellent  animal  took  me  the  sixteen  miles 
to  Sian-fu  in  four  hours,  and  I  arrived,  splashed 
with  mud,  at  the  post-office  at  luncheon-time, 
where  I  was  welcomed  by  Postmaster  Schaum- 
loeffel,  who  once  more  made  his  private  residence 
a  nice  home  for  me. 

Mr.  Schaumloeffel  had  suffered  much  from  the 
intense  heat,  and  was  not  in  his  very  best  form. 

During  that  evening,  and  the  next  day,  I  was 
able  to  gather  that  everything  concerning  my  in¬ 
terpreter,  Fong,  and  his  doings  was  not  as  bril¬ 
liantly  successful  as  stated  by  himself. 

It  appeared  that  his  behaviour  at  Fuping, 
where  he  undoubtedly  presented  himself  as  a 
great  “boss,”  had  been  of  such  a  nature  that  the 
inns  there  had  refused  him  shelter  during  his 
second  stay.  He  had  further,  directly  in  viola¬ 
tion  of  my  instructions,  been  seen  frequently  in 
gay  company  in  Sian  city;  and  at  the  temple, 


248 


SECOND  STAY  AT  SIAN-FU 


249 


where  he  was  supposed  to  live,  he  had  shown  him¬ 
self  such  a  troublesome  guest  that  the  old  chief- 
priest  Yii  Show  asked  him  to  find  new  lodgings 
as  soon  as  he  learned  of  my  expected  return. 

I,  consequently,  decided,  although  reluctantly, 
to  part  with  his  services,  especially  as  he  inti¬ 
mated  that  he  was  not  going  to  take  any  repri¬ 
mand  !  I  did  not  like  to  dismiss  him  without  due 
notice,  but,  being  far  away  from  consuls  and 
treaty-ports,  I  had  to  decide  quickly  in  order  to 
run  no  risks  in  connection  with  the  ultimate 
result  of  my  two  expeditions  to  Sian-fu. 

F ortunately,  Mr.  Fong,  in  a  suspiciously  hasty 
fashion,  made  up  his  mind  to  leave  Sian-fu  in¬ 
stantly  for  Tientsin,  where  he  ultimately  endeav¬ 
oured  to  hurt  me  indirectly  by  inciting  the  native 
press,  and  even  a  couple  of  foreign  newspapers, 
to  write  several  fantastic  articles  about  some  ne¬ 
farious  schemes  of  mine,  and  against  other  dark 
intentions  I  nurtured  in  my  faithless  bosom. 

I  naturally  never  did  anything  to  contradict 
these  silly  reports,  as  I  knew  everything  would 
come  out  all  right  in  the  end,  so  far  as  the  press 
was  concerned.  I  may  here  refer  to  the  Far 
Eastern  articles,  amongst  many  others,  in  the 
“Hankow  Daily  News”  of  Jan.  7th,  1908,  and  in 
the  “Shanghai  Times”  of  February  26,  1908, 
contributions  of  a  most  friendly  nature,  widely 
reprinted  in  Europe  and  America. 


250  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


Early  the  next  morning  I  saddled  Mr. 
SchaumloeffeFs  pony  and  rode  out  to  the  Nesto- 
rian  Buddha  temple,  where,  in  the  barn,  I  found, 
to  my  great  joy,  the  exquisitely  executed,  huge 
Replica  of  the  old  Christian  Monument,  the 
result  of  so  many  months  of  labour  and  toil 
and  risk. 

I  complimented  the  proud  stone-cutters  on 
their  magnificent  piece  of  work.  They  were 
present,  all  four,  seemingly  occupying  them¬ 
selves  with  some  final  touches,  but  in  reality 
waiting  for  me. 

The  old  priest  was  in  good  health  and  heartily 
bade  me  welcome,  expressing  his  delight  when  I 
told  him  that  Mr.  Fong  would  leave  the  temple 
the  next  day. 

“He  always  wants  hot  water  or  food,”  said 
Yii  Show. 

Armed  with  a  complete  paper-rubbing  ( de - 
caique)  of  the  original  inscription,  which  I  had 
on  me,  I  sat  down  to  the  exacting  task  of  com¬ 
paring  the  original  text  with  the  facsimile;  and, 
although  I  worked  conscientiously  with  lens  and 
print  for  hours,  I  was  unable  to  find  a  single 
error. 

I  next  applied  my  inch-scale  and  found  that 
the  dimensions  were  accurate  practically  to  a 
millimeter.  This  was  very  encouraging  indeed, 
and  I  returned  to  town  in  high  spirits. 


SECOND  STAY  AT  SIAN-FU 


251 


In  the  afternoon  I  sent  my  passport  to  the 
Yang  Wu  Chii,  the  local  Foreign  Office,  together 
with  my  crimson  visiting-card,  and  the  card  of 
the  Foreign  Office  of  Honan,  which  Mr.  Chang 
had  given  me  at  Kaifeng-fu. 

From  Mr.  Schaumloeffel  I  learned  that  two 
savants,  the  French  archaeologist,  Professor  Ed¬ 
ouard  Chavannes,  and  a  Russian  philologist, 
Professor  Alexieff,  whom  I  later  on  had  the 
pleasure  of  meeting  in  Peking,  where  he  lived  in 
a  Lama  temple,  had  paid  a  short  visit  to  Sian-fu. 
It  was  an  extremely  rare  occurrence  that  three 
travellers,  outside  missionary  circles,  visited 
far-off  Sian-fu  during  the  same  year. 

The  next  day  Mr.  Schaumloeffel  found  time 
to  come  out  and  inspect  the  Replica,  which  he 
greatly  admired. 

On  our  way  home  we  decided  to  walk  as  far  as 
the  outer  city-gate;  and,  when  passing  the  mili¬ 
tary,  mud-walled  barracks  outside  the  suburbs, 
we  were  the  victims  of  an  obvious  act  of  malice 
on  the  part  of  some  soldiers,  who  threw  stones 
after  us. 

I  had  a  very  good  mind  to  respond  with  a  bul¬ 
let  or  two  from  my  automatic,  but  preferred  to 
wait  until  I  knew  what  the  mandarins  in  town 
would  think  of  the  clandestine  creation  of  the 
Replica. 

Late  that  afternoon,  two  officials  from  the 


252  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


Shensi  Foreign  Office  called  on  me.  The  one, 
Mr.  Wong,  “Professor  of  English,”  was  able  to 
speak  a  few  words  of  that  tongue,  while  the  other, 
Mr.  Ying,  appeared  to  be  half  dead  and  wholly 
blind,  not  to  say  imbecile,  from  opium-smoking. 

A  kind  of  echo  of  the  hospitality  at  Wuchang 
and  Kaifeng  must  have  found  its  way  to  Sian, 
for,  in  broken  sentences,  Professor  Wong  con¬ 
veyed  the  following  message  to  me: 

“I  bring  you  the  compliments  of  His  Excel¬ 
lency  the  Governor,  who  is  very  sorry  that  he 
cannot  receive  vou,  because  he  is  ashamed  of 
showing  himself  to  you,  as  he  drinks  plenty  of 
wine  and  smokes  plenty  of  opium.  But  the 
other  directors  of  the  Foreign  Office  will  be  very 
glad  if  you  will  come  and  take  a  cup  of  tea 
tomorrow !” 

I  could  do  nothing  better  than  accept  with 
thanks,  especially  as  this  gave  me  an  unlooked- 
for  opportunity  to  reveal  the  facts  concerning 
the  Replica. 

I  may  insert  here  that  my  original  plan  in 
connection  with  the  eventual  acquisition  of  the 
original  Monument  was  never  carried  into 
effect. 

In  June  I  had  talked  confidentially  with  the 
Rev.  W.  Hagquist,  a  Swedish  missionary,  of  my 
plans,  as  well  as  of  the  eagerness  of  the  British 
Museum  and  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 


SECOND  STAY  AT  SIAN-FU 


253 


in  New  York  to  set  up  the  Chingchiaopei,  if 
secured.  But  he  had,  in  a  sympathetic  manner, 
advised  against  the  execution  of  such  a  plan 
which,  moreover,  he  considered  unfeasible. 

Mr.  Hagquist  was  absent,  when  I  returned  in 
September,  but  certain  inquiries  which  I  made 
before  the  departure  of  Mr.  Fong,  led  me  to  the 
conviction  that  the  local  Chinese  government 
finally  intended  to  do  something  about  the  state 
of  unprotection  of  the  great  Monument. 

My  sources  of  information  proved  correct,  al¬ 
though  the  Chinese,  at  that  stage  of  affairs,  had 
taken  no  steps  in  any  way  concerning  the  Stela, 
their  suspicions  undoubtedly  being  still  envel¬ 
oped  in  mist. 

The  next  morning  I  rode  to  the  Yang  Wu 
Chii,  where  I  found  about  a  dozen  mandarins 
gathered.  In  contrast  to  their  colleagues  at 
Kaifeng,  the  officials  at  Sian  did  not  wear  their 
robes  of  office.  They  were  all  attired  in  ordinary 
summer-dress,  with  fans  sticking  out  from  under 
their  collars. 

The  officials  of  the  Foreign  Office  of  Shensi  are 
not  used  to  entertain  strangers;  in  fact,  I  have 
the  honour  of  holding  the  record  of  being  the 
first  white  man  who  has  been  officially  enter¬ 
tained  by  the  Yang  Wu  Chii  of  Shensi. 

Mr.  Wong  introduced  me  to  the  prefect,  who 
presided  on  behalf  of  the  Fantai,  or  provincial 


254  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


treasurer,  this  official  having  excused  himself  on 
some  pretext  or  other. 

Prefect  Chen  was  a  very  amiable  gentleman, 
who  seemed  at  a  loss  to  understand  whether  it 
was  my  intention  futurely  to  haunt  tranquil, 
hidden  Sian-fu,  the  City  of  Western  Peace,  every 
two  or  three  months,  this  being  my  second  visit 
during  one  summer. 

The  refreshments  of  which  we  partook  con¬ 
sisted  of  fruit,  cake  and  tea. 

However,  in  order  to  add  a  little  foreign  tone 
to  the  entertainment,  one  quart  of  Japanese  beer 
had  been  procured  for  us  twelve  thirsty  souls, 
besides  another  quart  of  sour  claret. 

The  beer,  being  Kirin  beer  from  Yokohama, 
was  served  in  sherry  glasses,  while  the  apologetic 
claret  was  served  in  gratis  advertising  glasses, 
plainly  marked  “Kirin  Beer.”  Such  is  the  irony 
of  fate! 

I  thought  it  would  have  been  much  more  ap¬ 
propriate  had  the  prefect  offered  a  Chinese  meal, 
considering  that  we  were  so  far  away  from 
everything  foreign.  But  then,  I  could  hardly 
expect  that  excellent  gentleman  to  know  how 
highly  I  valued  real,  good,  Chinese  food. 

After  drinking  the  beer  in  sherry  glasses  and 
the  claret  in  beer  glasses,  we  smoked  cheroots 
from  Manila  and  cigarettes  from  England,  and 
suddenly  I  exploded  my  TNT  shell  by  telling 


SECOND  STAY  AT  SIAN-FU 


255 


our  host,  that  I  should  be  happy  if  some  of  the 
gentlemen,  whenever  convenient,  would  come  out 
and  inspect  a  Replica  in  stone  of  the  Nestorian 
Monument,  the  Chingchiaopei,  which  I  had 
secretly  caused  to  be  executed  during  my  absence 
in  the  south. 

It  did  not  appear  that  any  member  of  the 
assembly  knew  the  Nestorian  Tablet  even  by  its 
Chinese  name — my  pronunciation  probably  be¬ 
ing  guilty.  But,  when  I  produced  a  paper¬ 
rubbing,  their  minds  seemed  to  clear ;  and  as  they 
accepted  my  invitation  for  viewing  the  Replica 
that  same  afternoon,  we  arranged  to  meet  in 
Magistrate’s  Chu’s  yamen  at  two  o’clock,  after 
which  I  took  leave  of  my  hosts,  having  been  the 
guest  of  honour  at  one  of  the  most  unique  recep¬ 
tions  in  my  life. 

When  I  arrived  at  the  magistrate’s  yamen, 
Mr.  Chu  himself  came  out  to  greet  me. 

He  wore  official  dress,  and  I  was  told  that 
while  the  mandarins  from  the  Yang  Wu  Chii 
went  out  as  private  individuals,  desirous  of  wid¬ 
ening  their  sphere  of  knowledge,  Magistrate  Chu 
would  come,  it  had  been  decided,  as  His  Excel¬ 
lency  the  Governor’s  representative.  I  believe 
this  was  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Fantai,  who  was 
reported  to  be  a  very  able  and  conscientious  old 
gentleman. 

The  magistrate  was  a  comparatively  young 


256  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


man,  who  had  formerly  held  office  at  Tientsin. 
He  treated  me  to  a  tea-cup  full  of  some  nameless 
red  wine,  and  a  Pin-Head  cigarette  from  the 
United  States,  of  which  I  used  to  sell  millions 
when  I  worked  for  the  American  Tobacco  Com¬ 
pany  years  before. 

Our  procession  from  the  magistrate’s  yamen 
to  the  resting-place  of  the  Chingchiaopei  was 
quite  an  imposing  one. 

First  came  the  usual  twenty  or  thirty  coolies, 
carrying  red-painted  signs  with  characters  in 
gold,  wooden  halberds,  and  all  the  other  para¬ 
phernalia  of  office  and  hocuspocus  of  authority — 
similar  the  world  over — their  umbrellas  of  high 
dignity  not  to  be  forgotten. 

The  coolies  were  shouting  to  the  passers-by: 
“Room  for  Chu  Ta-lao-yeh!”  meaning,  “Room 
for  the  Right  Honourable  Chu!” 

N ext  came  the  magistrate  in  his  chair. 

He  had  now  donned  huge,  tortoise-shell- 
rimmed,  blue  spectacles,  which  gave  him  a  very 
learned  and  aged  appearance.  His  chair  was 
carried  with  considerable  speed,  and  was  fol¬ 
lowed  by  three  of  his  assistants  on  shaggy  Mon¬ 
golian  ponies. 

I  followed  next,  feeling  myself  as  being  “in 
attendance  on  horseback”  as  the  London  court- 
circulars  express  it. 

Mr.  Schaumloeffel’s  pony,  however,  evidently 


SECOND  STAY  AT  SIAN-FU 


257 


objected  to  anything  like  real  speed  on  the  im¬ 
possible  stone-pavement  of  Sian-fu. 

The  rear  of  the  procession  was  brought  up  by 
six  springless  carts,  containing  the  brains  of  the 
Shensi  Foreign  Office,  some  of  these  great  minds 
having  an  attendant  on  horseback,  others  a  serv¬ 
ant  running  beside  the  vehicle — a  very  enviable 
task  in  a  100  degrees  Fahrenheit. 

We  eventually  arrived  in  semi-state  at  our 
temple,  where  the  magistrate  at  once  proceeded 
to  view  the  Replica,  which  he  found  very  beauti¬ 
fully  carved.  He  then  walked  to  the  back  of  the 
temple,  followed  by  the  chief-priest,  who  had 
dressed  himself  in  his  yellow  robes  and  who 
seemed  on  the  verge  of  being  seized  with  apo¬ 
plexy  out  of  sheer  fright. 

I  myself  followed  as  well,  and  although  I 
could  not  understand  everything  the  magistrate 
said  to  Yii  Show,  it  was  clear  that  he  gave  the 
priest  strict  instructions  to  see  that  I,  “Ho- 
lo-mo,”  was  not  to  interfere  or  tamper  with  the 
Chingchiaopei,  which  would,  until  further  notice, 
be  guarded  day  and  night  by  two  yamen-runners. 

Although  I  felt  rather  amused  at  the  idea  that 
a  monument,  which  had  been  almost  wholly  ne¬ 
glected,  sometimes  even  despised,  by  the  Chinese 
in  general  ever  since  its  discovery  nearly  three 
hundred  years  ago,  was  to  be  guarded  as  a  na¬ 
tional  treasure  owing  to  my  humble  presence,  I 


258  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


considered  myself  a  lucky  man  that  the  Replica 
had  been  executed,  almost  up  to  the  last  moment, 
in  absolute  secrecy. 

I  now  felt  positively  convinced  that  if  I,  in 
June,  had  asked  the  governor’s  permission  to 
have  an  exact  copy  of  the  Tablet  made,  the  ap¬ 
plication  would  have  been  flatly  refused,  as  the 
Chinese  mind  would  always  associate  such  an 
inexplicable  undertaking  with  hidden  undercur¬ 
rents  of  dark  schemes. 

Now  that  the  Replica  was  finished  and  paid 
for,  the  mandarins  could  not  very  well  seize  it  in 
cold  blood.  Yet,  their  suspicions  were  clearly 
manifested  by  their  acts. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  other  officials  joined  us, 
and  it  was  evident  that  not  a  single  one  among 
the  lot  had  ever  set  eye  on  the  venerable  Monu¬ 
ment  before,  a  Monument  in  which  they  now,  so 
very  suddenly,  displayed  a  surprisingly  keen 
interest. 

When  I  had  taken  a  couple  of  photographs  of 
the  remarkable  group  of  mandarins,  with  the 
Stone  as  background,  we  all  returned  to  town, 
the  magistrate  leaving  two  uniformed  runners  as 
a  guard.  The  governor,  or  whoever  had  induced 
the  magistrate  to  act,  must  have  thought  me  quite 
a  bad  man  indeed,  in  spite  of  all  the  surface 
politeness  that  was  shown  me,  and  no  chances 
were  taken. 


(Top)  A  playful,  little  Imp. 

( Bottom )  The  Empress-Dowager’s  bedroom  while  in  exile  at 
Sian-fu.  The  bed-cover  was  a  beautiful  red  and  harmonized 
with  the  matchless  sang-de-bceuf  vase  on  the  table.  See 
pages  139-142. 


SECOND  STAY  AT  SIAN-FU 


259 


In  the  evening  I  learned  that  my  ex-inter- 
preter,  Mr.  Fong,  had  left  town  on  his  eastward 
journey. 

During  the  next  few  days  I  was  busily  en¬ 
gaged  finding  means  of  transportation  for  the 
Replica,  which  turned  out  to  be  rather  a  difficult 
task.  The  larger  cart-hongs  demanded  up  to 
three  hundred  dollars  gold  to  take  the  new 
Monument  as  far  as  Chengchow  railway-station, 
a  distance  of  some  356  miles. 

This  was  not  far  from  being  extortion,  as  the 
good  carters  of  Sian  shrewdly  utilized  the  fact 
that  I  did  not,  of  course,  intend  to  remain  there 
with  the  stone  until  I  grew  white-haired.  Mean¬ 
while,  it  happened  that  there  was  still  a  balance 
due  to  the  contracting  stone-cutter,  and,  as  I  felt 
sure  that  he  was  going  to  have  a  good  squeeze  out 
of  the  assured  transportation  money,  I  told  him 
that  he  would  not  get  a  cent  of  his  dues  until  he 
got  me  a  strong  cart  at  a  reasonable  price. 

This  may  not  have  been  noble,  but  it  proved 
effective,  and  as  I  did  not  intend  to  lose  more 
time  than  was  necessary,  I  took  the  stone-cutter 
and  the  carter  to  the  Yang  Wu  Chii  in  order  to 
settle  the  price.  It  was  eventually  decided  upon 
and  accepted,  that  I  should  pay  the  carter  210 
Taels,  then  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
gold,  for  the  transport  to  Chengchow. 

Thirty  days  were  allowed,  and  a  fine  of  seven 


260  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


Taels  for  each  day  overdue  was  guaranteed  by 
the  cartman  for  over-time.  Fifty  per  centum  of 
the  cartage  was  to  be  paid  in  advance,  as  it  was 
essential  to  construct  a  new,  special  cart,  partly 
from  drawings  by  me. 

It  would  naturally  have  been  easier  to  obtain 
a  proper  stone-cart  from  the  quarries  at  Fuping, 
but  the  stone-cutter  said  that  Mr.  Fong’s  con¬ 
duct,  when  at  Fuping,  had  been  of  such  a  nature 
that  he  felt  convinced  that  no  Fuping  man  would 
dream  of  undertaking  the  job. 

The  next  morning,  the  carter  turned  up,  to¬ 
gether  with  the  fortunately  still  unpaid  stone¬ 
cutter,  and  expressed  his  grief  that  it  was 
impossible  to  undertake  the  transport  for  210 
Taels!  With  whatever  duplicity  of  mind  I  had 
learned  to  command  in  the  Far  East  and  else¬ 
where,  I  expressed  my  deeply-felt  sorrow,  al¬ 
lowing  no  word  of  criticism  or  anger  to  pass 
my  lips. 

The  two  men  waited  a  little  while.  When  they 
saw  that  I  quietly  continued  to  enjoy  my  pipe, 
they  went  away. 

Ten  minutes  later  I  was  on  my  way  on  a  pony 
to  the  Yang  Wu  Chii,  where  I  found  Professor 
Wong,  to  whom  I  related  the  cart-story. 

Mr.  Wong  was  in  very  high  spirits,  as  he 
had  just  been  appointed  magistrate  of  a  city 
somewhere  in  northern  Shensi;  and,  as  he  was 


SECOND  STAY  AT  SIAN-FU 


261 


consequently  anxious  to  anticipate  his  new 
powers,  he  promised  to  investigate  the  matter 
at  once. 

While  I  was  out,  Magistrate  Chu  called  on  me 
and  left  cards. 

In  the  evening  I  received  information  from 
Mr.  Wong  that  the  carter  and  the  stone-cutter 
had  been  “tried  and  found  guilty”  in  the  magis¬ 
trate’s  yamen  for  “breach  of  promise,”  and  had 
then  and  there  received  an  unpleasant  amount  of 
bamboo-blows  each. 

The  next  morning  the  contract  for  the  trans¬ 
port  was  duly  signed,  sealed,  and  delivered,  and 
the  construction  of  the  new  cart  began  after  I 
had  paid  the  cartman  one  hundred  Taels  in 
advance — all  due  to  the  bamboo  stick! 

The  bamboo  is  unquestionably  one  of  the  most 
useful  specimens  of  “flora  sinica,”  growing  in  the 
Far  East. 

In  response  to  my  invitation,  representatives 
of  the  three  mission  stations  at  Sian  came  out  to 
the  temple  on  the  24th  of  September  to  view  the 
Replica. 

From  the  Roman  Catholic  mission,  my  friends. 
Father,  later  Bishop,  Gabriel  Maurice,  and 
Father  Hugh  came  out,  expressing  much  admi¬ 
ration  at  the  work  done  by  the  stone-cutters. 

Besides  the  Catholics,  five  Swedish- Americans 
and  three  English  Baptists  turned  up.  They 


262  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


seemed  to  be  at  a  loss  to  understand  how  the 
transport  was  to  be  undertaken,  but  I  was  fortu¬ 
nately  able  to  pacify  their  anxiety,  although  I 
offered  no  definite  explanation. 

I  had  farewell  luncheon  in  the  Catholic  Mis¬ 
sion,  and  a  couple  of  days  later  I  was  graciously 
invited  to  the  Baptist  Mission,  which  is  situated 
in  the  eastern  suburb. 

During  the  time  occupied  in  constructing  the 
new  cart,  I  daily  took  a  walk  out  in  the  country, 
usually  with  my  kodak.  I  also  paid  repeated 
visits  to  the  deserted  imperial  palace,  where, 
after  many  experiments,  due  to  the  want  of 
light,  I  succeeded  in  taking  a  photograph  of  the 
emperor’s  throne  and  the  empress-dowager’s 
sleeping-room.  These  are,  as  far  as  I  know,  the 
only  interieurs  in  existence  from  the  reigning 
exiles’  residence  at  Sian-fu. 

In  order  to  insure  the  Stone  an  unmolested 
passage  to  Chengchow,  it  was  necessary  to  obtain 
official  protection.  The  many  likin,  or  internal 
revenue,  stations,  not  to  speak  of  the  yamens  on 
the  way,  would  otherwise  undoubtedly  obstruct 
and  delay  the  transport  of  such  a  large  and  re¬ 
markable  piece  of  work. 

At  first  the  Yang  Wu  Chii  did  not  show  great 
willingness  to  furnish  me  with  a  letter  of  protec¬ 
tion  or  passport.  I  accordingly  wrote  directly  to 
the  governor,  saying  that  I  would  have  to  tele- 


: 


The  makeshift  Dragon-Throne  of  Sian-fn,  used  during  the 
Imperial  Court’s  exile,  1900-01.  Although  upholstered  in 
costly  yellow  silk  it  compares  disadvantageous^'  with  its 
carved  prototypes  in  Peking.  The  door-panes  represent 
practically  all  the  glass  in  the  entire  residence,  while  the  rug 
on  the  floor  was  superior  to  anything  else  in  the  Throne- 
Room.  (In  1907  my  photographs  of  the  Empress-Dowager’s 
bedroom,  and  of  the  Throne,  were  the  first  ever  taken.)  See 
pages  139-142. 


SECOND  STAY  AT  SIAN-FU 


263 


graph  to  Peking  if  I  could  get  no  local  help. 
The  following  evening  I  received  from  His 
Excellency  a  most  elaborate  letter  of  protec¬ 
tion,  which  seemed  to  cover  all  conceivable 
eventualities. 

It  had  first  been  my  idea  personally  to  accom¬ 
pany  the  Replica  on  its  slow  eastward  march,  but 
having  talked  the  matter  over  with  Mr.  Schaum- 
loeffel,  we  agreed  that  nothing  advantageous 
could  possibly  come  of  my  escorting  the  Tablet, 
as  the  governor’s  letter  covered  everything  ex¬ 
cept  accidents  and  bad  weather,  which  neither 
His  Excellency,  nor  I  myself,  could  possibly 
control. 

The  second  day  in  October,  1907,  saw  the  ful¬ 
fillment  of  an  act  that  ought  to  have  taken  place 
nearly  three  hundred  years  ago. 

As  it  was  the  day  previous  to  the  final  depart¬ 
ure  of  the  Replica,  I  rode  out  on  the  postal  pony, 
“Boozey,”  in  order  to  be  present  at  various  ar¬ 
rangements  concerning  the  packing  of  the  Stone, 
and  in  order  to  pay  my  aged  friend,  Yii  Show,  a 
sum  of  money,  being  the  rent  for  the  barn  and 
for  the  departed  Mr.  Fong’s  room. 

In  order  to  prolong  the  ride,  I  left  the  city  by 
the  north-gate,  thus  approaching  the  Nestorian 
temple  in  a  southwesterly  direction. 

Nearing  the  temple  grounds,  I  saw  with  feel¬ 
ings  that  can  easier  be  imagined  than  described, 


264  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


that  the  original  Nestorian  Monument  had 
disappeared ! 

I  galloped  up  to  its  former  resting-place,  and 
all  I  saw  was  a  hole  in  the  ground  where  the 
Monument’s  “fair  pedestal,”  the  sad-looking 
stone-tortoise,  had  been  left.  The  Stela  itself 
had  certainly  gone,  and  I  wondered  whether  any 
harm  had  befallen  the  Replica  in  the  barn.  Half 
a  minute  brought  me  to  the  temple,  where  I 
found  my  new  Monument  in  prime  condition. 

Old  Yu  Show,  however,  was  not  in  very  good 
humour. 

The  Stone  he  had  watched  over  and  seen  daily 
during  the  past  half  century  was  gone ! 

Nevertheless,  his  countenance  lighted  up,  when 
I  produced  a  weighty  chunk  of  Sycee  silver 
and  a  couple  of  small  presents,  among  them  a 
powerful  reading-glass,  which  he  had  expressed 
a  desire  to  possess  as  his  eyesight  was  getting 
weak.  He  had  seen  me  use  it,  when  I  examined 
the  characters  on  the  Replica. 

I  also  brought  him  a  couple  of  photographs  of 
himself,  taken  in  June,  which  he  seemed  to  ad¬ 
mire  very  much. 

The  chief-priest  said  that  he  did  not  know  the 
destination  of  the  Chingchiaopei;  so,  my  business 
over,  I  rode  back  through  the  western  suburb, 
promising  to  return  the  next  day  to  see  the 
Replica  off. 


SECOND  STAY  AT  SIAN-FU 


265 


About  half-way  between  the  suburban  gate 
and  the  city-gate,  I  overtook  the  Nestorian 
Monument,  which  was  being  slowly  carried  by 
no  less  than  forty-eight  coolies  towards  the  capi¬ 
tal  proper. 

They  carried  it,  hanging  under  a  multitude  of 
bamboo-yokes,  in  the  same  way  heavy  coffins  are 
usually  transported. 

The  two-ton  Chingchiaopei,  temporarily  sus¬ 
pended,  as  it  were,  above  its  usual  level,  was 
an  object  of  the  keenest  display  of  curiosity 
on  the  part  of  the  natives,  residents  as  well  as 
passers-by. 

I  have  already  mentioned  the  “Peilin”  or 
“Forest  of  Tablets”  in  Sian-fu,  where  hundreds 
of  stone-slabs  with  inscriptions  are  kept. 

The  Peilin  was  the  destination  of  the  Monu¬ 
ment.  It  took,  so  I  was  informed  later  by  mail, 
some  weeks  before  the  Stone  was  finally  erected 
in  its  new  position  on  the  back  of  its  tortoise, 
which  was  brought  to  town  the  following  day. 

The  repeated,  earnest  representations  of  the 
corps  diplomatique  and  the  missionary  bodies  in 
Peking  for  the  preservation  of  the  ancient  Chris¬ 
tian  relic  had,  through  years,  proved  futile.  And 
the  foreign  missionaries  on  the  spot  had  done 
nothing  to  guard  their  venerable  Tablet. 

It  was,  therefore,  a  source  of  great  satisfaction 
to  me  to  realize  that  my  expedition  had  been  the 


266  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


direct  cause  for  removing  the  priceless  Stone 
to  a  place,  where  it  will  not  be  exposed  to  wind 
and  weather  and  theft,  and  where  it  will  stand  a 
fair  chance  of  being  able  adequately  to  fight  its 
long,  long  battle  against  age  and  time. 

Before  leaving  Sian-fu,  I  went  to  the  Peilin, 
where  I  photographed  the  Chingchiaopei  lying 
on  the  ground.  The  tortoise  had  not  yet  been 
placed,  although  it  was  on  the  point  of  arriving, 
but  the  keeper  showed  me  the  place,  where  the 
Tablet  was  destined  to  be  re-erected. 

I  was  happy,  before  leaving  Sian,  to  know  the 
exact  spot  which  would  be  the  future  resting- 
place  of  the  famous  Monument. 

The  day  following,  I  arrived  early  in  the  morn¬ 
ing  at  the  temple,  where  the  stone-cutters  and  the 
cartmen  were  busily  engaged  in  sewing  large 
sheets  of  felt  all  around  the  huge  Beplica.  I  had 
desired  to  have  a  strong  frame  of  planks  made, 
but  for  various  reasons  this  was  given  up, 
notably  as  lumber  was  scarce  and  costly. 

The  new  cart,  which  looked  very  strong  and 
spruce,  arrived,  and  eventually  the  difficult  task 
of  lifting,  or  rather  hauling  and  pushing,  the 
two-ton  slab  from  the  ground  onto  the  cart 
began. 

With  ropes  and  wooden  levers,  it  took  eleven 
men  of  experience  one  hour  and  a  half  to  perform 
this  piece  of  engineering.  So  far  as  manual 


{Top)  Mandarins  of  the  Shensi  Provincial  Foreign  Office  visit 
the  Nestorian  Monument  with  me. 

( Bottom )  Activity  in  connection  with  removal  of  Monument 
and  its  stone-tortoise  base  into  the  Peilin  of  Sian-fu  after 
upwards  of  300  years’  exposure — one  result  of  the  expedi¬ 
tion. 


SECOND  STAY  AT  SIAN-FU 


267 


adroitness  is  concerned,  the  Chinaman,  when 
given  his  time,  is  distinctly  wonderful. 

When  watching  Chinese  coolies  handle  the 
Replica,  I  automatically  thought  of  the  building 
of  pyramids  and  the  erection  of  obelisks. 

Packing  and  charging  took  from  eight  in  the 
morning  till  one  in  the  afternoon,  at  which  hour 
the  Replica  of  the  Chingchiaopei  left  the  temple 
for  New  York — and  Rome! 

I  followed  on  “Boozey”  as  far  as  the 
south-gate. 

I  gave  the  head-carter  one  of  my  Danish  flags 
which  was  then  unfurled  above  the  Replica ;  also 
the  governor’s  passport  and  several  of  my  own 
Chinese  visiting-cards. 

I  further  gave  him  half  a  dozen  envelopes  ad¬ 
dressed  to  myself  at  Chengchow.  These  he  was 
to  post  along  the  route,  so  that  I  might  always 
learn  of  his  progress  from  the  post-marks.  He 
never  mailed  one  of  them. 

The  large  cart  was  pulled  by  six  mules — three 
ahead,  then  two,  and  finally  one  big  animal  be¬ 
tween  the  heavy  cart-poles. 

There  were  three  men  in  attendance,  who  all 
looked  very  contented  as  they  departed  on  their 
long  and  troublesome,  eastward  journey. 

The  next  day  Mr.  Schaumloeffel  and  I  had 
tiffin  in  the  Catholic  mission,  the  day  being  the 
anniversary  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  the  patron 


268  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


of  the  Franciscans.  The  Bishop,  Dr.  A.  Goette, 
unfortunately  had  not  returned  from  the  coun¬ 
try,  so  I  lost  the  opportunity  to  bid  him  good-bye. 

In  the  evening  old  Governor  Chao  sent  a  secre¬ 
tary  with  his  card,  wishing  me  “bon  voyage 

The  following  day  I  made  ready  to  start  on 
another  trying  trip  without  interpreter  or  boy. 
Still,  I  was  used  to  that  sort  of  thing,  and,  as  the 
weather  was  much  cooler  and  Mr.  Schaumloeffel 
had  promised  me  the  use  of  his  pony  “Boozey  the 
Capricious,”  during  my  return-trip,  I  knew  that 
everything  would  run  more  smoothly  than  last 
time. 

In  the  afternoon,  Father  Gabriel  and  Father 
Hugh  came  to  bid  me  Godspeed.  We  mutually 
hoped  to  see  each  other  some  day  in  Europe,  al¬ 
though  it  is  well-known  that  the  Roman  Catholic 
missionary  does  not  go  to  China  with  the  idea 
that  he  will  necessarily  ever  return. 

Of  the  Protestant  missionaries  I  saw  nothing 
further,  although  I  later  read  several  more  or 
less  insinuating  articles,  which  they  had  dis¬ 
patched  to  the  foreign  papers  on  the  coast. 


XIV 


TRANSPORTING  A  TWO-TON 
MONUMENT 

IT  was  with  something  akin  to  sadness  that  I 
bade  good-bye  to  the  historic  Tang  capital 
of  Sian-fu.  But  my  mission  was  at  an  end, 
and  it  was  time  for  me  to  steer  back  to  the  coast 
and  to  western  civilization. 

On  October  sixth,  on  a  splendid  Sunday  morn¬ 
ing,  I  left  Sian  on  “Boozev”  in  company  with  my 
baggage-cart.  We  travelled  slowly  in  order  to 
enjoy  the  beautiful  cool  weather,  and  that  first 
day  we  only  reached  Lintung,  where,  for  the  last 
time,  I  slept  at  the  imperial  baths. 

The  next  day  a  drizzling  rain  made  travelling 
very  disagreeable,  and  I  was  afraid  that  the  rainy 
season  would  set  in  in  earnest.  Yet,  the  day 
after,  the  sun  was  shining  brilliantly  once  more, 
while  we  proceeded  eastwards  along  the  foot¬ 
hills  of  the  Hwa  Shan. 

The  road  was  inundated  in  some  places,  being 
always  below  the  level  of  the  surrounding  coun¬ 
try,  and  the  baggage-cart  now  and  then  had  to 
make  considerable  detours  in  order  to  avoid  get¬ 
ting  stuck  in  the  mud. 


269 


270  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


While  sitting  waiting  for  the  cart  near  a  stone- 
bridge  beyond  Hwa-chow,  I  saw  a  Russian  com¬ 
ing  along  in  his  native  dress. 

He  was  in  charge  of  a  long  caravan,  and  told 
me  in  Chinese — I  do  not  speak  Russian — that  he 
was  on  his  way  to  Muscovite  Turkestan  with  fif¬ 
teen  loads  of  brick-tea,  made  in  Hankow.  The 
carts  having  passed,  each  pulled  by  three  mules, 
and  some  by  camels,  the  Russian,  after  an  inter¬ 
change  of  cigarettes,  proceeded  on  his  way  to¬ 
wards  distant  Central  Asia. 

On  the  8th  of  October  we  arrived  at  Liutze, 
where  we  overtook  the  Replica. 

Everything  was  apparently  all  right,  and  the 
stone-cart  and  I  left  town  the  next  morning 
about  the  same  time. 

On  the  9th,  in  the  afternoon,  I  arrived  at 
Tungkwan,  where  the  Chinese  clerk-in-charge  of 
the  telegraph-office  asked  me  to  stay  with  him  at 
the  station.  Mr.  Chii  King  Sing  was  a  kind  and 
quiet  young  man,  who  attended  to  his  duties ;  and 
I  was  happy  to  stay  at  the  telegraph-station,  as 
my  recollections  of  the  cleanliness  of  the  inns  in 
the  transit  town  of  Tungkwan  were  very  un¬ 
pleasant  indeed. 

Mr.  Chii  had  a  young  clerk  to  assist  him  in  the 
office,  whom  I  practically  never  saw,  as  he  spent 
most  of  his  time  in  seclusion  with  his  best  friend 
— an  opium  pipe. 


TRANSPORTING  A  TWO-TON  MONUMENT  271 


It  is  discouraging  to  learn  almost  everywhere, 
that  the  reputation  enjoyed  by  the  native  staff  of 
the  Imperial  Telegraphs  is  not  of  a  flattering 
nature.  Quite  the  opposite  is  the  case  with  the 
Postal  Service,  where  a  clerk  is  simply  discharged 
if  he  smokes  opium  or  displays  other  disintegrat¬ 
ing  traits.  It  would  perhaps  not  be  at  all  bad,  if 
the  Chinese  Imperial  Telegraphs  were  amalga¬ 
mated  with  the  Postal  Service,  thus  coming  under 
the  sway  of  able  organizers  like  Sir  Robert  Hart 
and  Sir  Robert  Bredon. 

During  the  next  two  days  the  windows  of  the 
Heavens  kept  open,  and  the  rain  fell  in  distress¬ 
ing  quantities.  I  thus  had  to  trespass  on  the 
hospitality  of  Mr.  Chii,  who  was  indeed  a  very 
pleasant  host,  although  his  English  was  not  of 
the  easiest  to  understand. 

I  received  a  message  from  the  head-carter  in 
charge  of  the  Stone,  postmarked  Hwayin,  in 
which  he  informed  “Ho-lo-mo  Ta-jen”  that  he 
would  have  to  wait  a  few  days  until  the  roads 
became  better  after  the  downpour.  Mr.  Chii 
answered  for  me  that  I  fully  sympathized  with 
his  view,  and  that  he,  the  carter,  and  not  I,  was 
now  in  charge  of  the  transport. 

In  the  afternoon  of  my  first  day  in  Tungkwan, 
when  the  weather  had  abated  a  little,  Mr.  Chii 
and  I  made  a  trip  across  the  Yellow  River  to  the 
southwest  corner  of  the  province  of  Shansi. 


272  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


We  went  over  on  one  of  the  big  government 
ferries,  but  unfortunately,  the  current  of  the 
combined  Hwang-ho  and  Wei-ho  was  so  strong 
that  the  boatmen  were  unable  to  land  at  the  usual 
place,  the  scow  being  swiftly  carried  some  two 
miles  below  the  landing-stage. 

One  moment  the  situation  looked  unpleasant 
enough,  one  of  the  oars  having  broken,  but  the 
steersman  eventually  succeeded  in  kedging  up  to 
the  bank,  where  the  boatmen  stripped  and  carried 
us  ashore.  Mr.  Chii  and  I  walked  back  to  the 
small  village  of  Yiiwongmiao,  where  we  visited 
a  couple  of  temples. 

We  then  crossed  back  to  the  south  bank,  but 
again  rushed  a  couple  of  miles  down  the  river, 
so  that,  when  eventually  we  returned  to  the 
telegraph-station,  where  the  opium-clerk  to  my 
astonishment  was  sitting  working,  we  were  pos¬ 
sessed  of  a  good  appetite  and  a  strong  desire 
for  rest. 

The  following  afternoon,  Mr.  Chii  and  I,  in 
spite  of  rain  and  wind,  visited  the  ancient  Con- 
fucian  temple,  where  several  old  memorial  slabs 
stand.  The  carving  on  one  of  these,  which  is 
said  to  be  over  two  thousand  years  old,  repre¬ 
sented  the  holy  mountain  Hwa  Shan,  close  by 
Tungkwan,  clearly  depicting  the  steep  path  that 
leads  to  the  sacred  top. 

We  explored  the  ruins  of  some  other  temples 


TRANSPORTING  A  TWO-TON  MONUMENT  273 


as  well,  and  in  one  of  them  found  three  or  four 
suspicious-looking  vagabonds,  who  were  osten¬ 
sibly  seeking  shelter  under  the  dilapidated  roof 
of  the  main-temple.  One  of  them  was  lying 
down,  smoking  opium,  while  the  others  were 
gathered  around  a  dying  fire  of  straw  and 
charcoal. 

Timid  Mr.  Chii  did  not  like  the  select  com¬ 
pany,  and  we  turned  to  go,  when  suddenly  I 
became  aware  of  the  feet  and  legs  of  a  prostrate 
man  in  an  open  room  next  to  the  entrance- 
pavilion.  Out  of  sheer  curiosity  I  went  to  have 
a  look  at  him,  and  perceiving  that  the  wanderer 
was  covered  from  head  to  knees,  I  lifted  the 
cover  from  his  face. 

One  of  the  most  diabolically  distorted  counte¬ 
nances  I  have  ever  seen  stared  me  right  in  the 
face — the  poor  devil  had  been  killed  with  a 
master-cut  from  ear  to  ear. 

Mr.  Chii  fortunately  did  not  see  the  ghastly 
sight,  but  I  asked  him  to  find  out  whether  the 
vagabonds  had  sent  word  to  the  yamen  of  the 
local  magistrate,  and  the  question  was  answered 
in  the  affirmative.  This,  however,  I  certainly  did 
not  believe  for  a  moment,  as  a  Chinaman  is  al¬ 
ways  exceedingly  careful  not  to  give  information 
about  any  mysterious  death  to  the  authorities,  as 
he  runs  a  very  good  chance  of  being  arrested  and 
executed  as  the  perpetrator  of  the  crime. 


274  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


I  asked  Mr.  Chii  to  come  with  me  to  the  yamen 
in  order  to  report  the  murder,  but  he  asked  me  in 
a  tone,  almost  solemn,  to  leave  the  matter  alone 
for  his  sake,  as  he  was  sure  to  be  dragged  into  it. 
I  acquiesced,  although  I  felt  sure  that  the  vaga¬ 
bonds  in  the  temple  were  the  culprits. 

The  weather  being  dry  the  next  morning,  I 
started  early,  after  having  thanked  Mr.  Chii  for 
his  generous  hospitality. 

The  road  proved  very  bad  indeed,  and  the 
cart-wheels  sunk  every  moment  to  the  nave. 
“Boozey”  strongly  objected  to  his  task  of  carry¬ 
ing  me,  and  gave  me  a  good  deal  of  trouble.  Our 
progress  was  further  made  very  slow  as  all  the 
carts  which  had  gathered,  thanks  to  the  weather, 
during  the  past  three  days  had  set  out  eastward 
on  this  very  morning.  They  had  started  just 
half  an  hour  ahead  of  us  and  effectually  blocked 
the  road  everywhere,  the  highway  being  too  nar¬ 
row  to  pass  them. 

Our  destination  was  Wen-hsien — a  highway¬ 
men’s  nest — but  the  animals  were  so  exhausted 
that  we  had  to  stop  at  a  very  small  village  called 
Pantau.  There  was  only  one  inn,  consisting  of 
caves  in  the  Loess  wall.  I  was  fortunate  in  get¬ 
ting  a  cave  to  myself ;  in  the  next  cave — I  delib¬ 
erately  peeped  through  a  large  opening  in  the 
cracked  door — was  a  large,  black  coffin  with  a 
corpse  awaiting  further  transportation. 


TRANSPORTING  A  TWO-TON  MONUMENT  275 


I  made  my  cocoa  and  boiled  some  eggs,  and 
after  having  stretched  out  my  camp-bed,  I  soon 
fell  asleep  dreaming  of  coffins  and  corpses,  and 
about  prehistoric  animals  roaming  at  large,  when 
all  humanity  still  dwelt  in  caves,  and  architects 
had  not  yet  been  invented. 

On  the  14th  we  arrived  early  in  the  afternoon 
at  Shenchou.  As  it  was  too  early  to  eat  supper, 
I  rode  down  among  multitudes  of  beautiful  per¬ 
simmon-trees,  to  the  right  bank  of  the  Hwang-ho, 
where  I  desired  to  photograph  an  imposing 
Loess-mountain,  situated  on  the  opposite  bank. 

A  few  big  ferry-boats  and  a  couple  of  salt- 
barges  were  lying  along  the  low  bank.  In  order 
to  get  an  uninterrupted  view  of  the  Loess-hill, 
and  to  get  rid  of  the  ever-increasing  number  of 
curious  spectators,  I  jumped  onboard  one  of  the 
craft,  busying  myself  with  the  kodak. 

When  I  had  finished,  I  noted  to  my  dismay, 
that  the  boat  was  rapidly  gliding  away  from 
shore,  not  having  been  anchored  to  the  bank  or  to 
the  other  craft ;  but  a  Chinese  lad,  who  belonged 
to  a  salt-barge,  discovered  my  plight,  stripped, 
and  jumped  into  the  water,  eventually  succeed¬ 
ing  in  pulling  the  big  boat  back. 

I  took  a  snapshot  of  the  lifeguard  youngster 
and  gave  him  whatever  money  I  had  in  my 
saddle-bags.  As  there  were  no  oars  or  poles  in 
the  blessed  scow  I  might  eventually,  with  luck, 


276  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


have  succeeded  in  landing  somewhere  in  the 
Pe-Chili  Gulf. 

On  the  evening  of  October  16th,  after  a  ride  of 
some  thirty  miles,  I  had  supper  with  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Stalhammer,  missionaries  in  the  town  of 
Mienchi;  and  two  nights  later,  I  was  hospitably 
put  up  at  the  Swedish  mission  in  Honan-fu  by 
my  friend  Pastor  Anderson,  Dr.  Beinhoff  being 
away. 

Heavy  rains  forced  me  to  accept  Mr.  Ander¬ 
son’s  hospitality  for  another  two  days,  but  de¬ 
spite  the  continuous  downpour,  I  proceeded  on 
the  21st  to  Yenshih,  where  once  again  I  was  asked 
to  stay  overnight  with  Monsieur  Squilbin  and 
his  wife. 

The  wheat  that  would  form  the  first  harvest  in 
1908  was  already  shooting  forth  everywhere, 
probably  owing  to  the  heavy  rain-fall. 

The  last  night  which  I  passed  in  a  typical 
Chinese  inn  was  the  night  between  the  23rd  and 
24th  of  October,  1907,  at  the  city  of  Szeshui-ho, 
to  which  point  the  Pien-Lo  railway  is  practically 
completed. 

I  was  not  unhappy  at  the  thought  that  the  next 
evening  I  should  have  a  proper  bed,  and  a  servant 
to  wait  on  me.  I  got  up  very  early  the  following 
morning,  and,  having  saddled  “Boozey,”  I  left 
Szeshui-ho  at  5.15  a.  m.,  leaving  the  luggage  to 
take  its  own  course. 


TRANSPORTING  A  TWO-TON  MONUMENT  277 


I  was  going  to  try  to  induce  Master  “Boozey” 
to  show  himself  equal  to  a  final  spurt.  He 
proved  himself  fairly  willing,  and,  trotting  along 
the  railroad-ties  some  of  the  way,  he  made  the 
twenty- six  miles  to  Chengchow  in  four  hours 
and  forty-five  minutes,  arriving  at  eleven  o’clock 
at  the  combination  inn-grocery  of  Messrs.  Leca 
and  Luciani,  of  Corsica,  some  extra  time  hav¬ 
ing  been  utilized  en  route  for  eating  a  last  egg 
or  two. 

I  had  promised  Mr.  Schaumloeffel  to  endeav¬ 
our  to  sell  the  pony  for  him,  but  unfortunately 
this  proved  impossible.  I  accordingly  had  to 
send  him  back  to  Sian-fu  in  the  care  of  some 
Chinese  scoundrels,  who  delivered  up  the  poor 
beast,  according  to  my  friend’s  statement,  in  “a 
frightful  condition.” 

In  order  to  say  good-bye  to  Captain  Perry 
Ayscough  at  Kaifeng-fu,  I  took  the  train  the 
next  day,  arriving  at  the  post-office  at  tea  time. 
As  the  train  did  not  start  until  the  following 
morning,  I  stayed  over  night  with  Mr.  Ayscough, 
returning  to  Chengchow  the  next  day. 

My  return  to  Chengchow,  from  where  there 
was  direct  railway  communication  with  Peking, 
as  well  as  with  Hankow,  really  signified  the  end 
of  my  horseback  and  houseboat  travels. 

While  naturally  not  including  railway  jour¬ 
neys  or  river-steamer  voyages,  the  distance  trav- 


278  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


elled  between  May  2nd  and  October  24th  on 
horseback,  by  native  houseboat  and  cart,  and  in 
sedan-chair  as  an  invalid,  represented  a  little  over 
two  thousand  five  hundred  miles,  approximately 
equal  to  the  distances  from  London  to  Cairo, 
from  Liverpool  to  Halifax,  or  from  New  York 
to  Panama. 

The  next  two  weeks  I  remained  quietly  at 
Chengchow  waiting  for  the  Ileplica  to  arrive.  I 
naturally  made  allowance  for  the  bad  state  of  the 
roads,  due  to  the  autumn  rains,  and  did  not  ex¬ 
pect  that  the  huge  cart  would  be  able  to  arrive  by 
November  1st  as  per  contract. 

During  my  stay  at  Chengchow  I  met  two  or 
three  American  missionary  families,  who  seemed 
to  take  a  kind  interest  in  my  enterprise.  They 
had  evidently  found  the  native  houses  in  the  city 
proper  too  dirty  and  unhealthy,  and  had  conse¬ 
quently  followed  the  example  of  their  Canadian 
colleagues  at  Hwaiking-fu,  building  some  big 
commodious  houses  in  foreign  style  outside  the 
city-wall. 

I  spent  the  time  at  Chengchow  in  long  cross¬ 
country  rides  and  walks,  accompanied  by  three 
of  the  dogs  belonging  to  my  two  Corsican  hosts. 
The  dogs,  as  well  as  I  myself,  thoroughly  en¬ 
joyed  the  nice  cool  weather,  which  permitted  us 
to  cover  ten  or  twelve  miles  every  day. 

On  the  first  day  of  November,  the  day  on 


TRANSPORTING  A  TWO-TON  MONUMENT  279 


which  the  Replica  was  timed  to  arrive,  Monsieur 
Leca  and  I  took  the  early  freight-train  north¬ 
wards,  and  after  a  ride  of  seventeen  miles  we 
arrived  at  the  southern  bank  of  the  Yellow 
River.  Here  the  Kin  Han  Railway  Company 
completed  in  1905  what  may  be  justly  termed 
one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world,  the  Hwang-ho 
bridge. 

This  enormous  structure  is  nearly  two  miles 
long,  single-tracked,  and  by  night  lighted  up  by 
some  twenty-five  large  electric  arc-lamps.  The 
trains  pass  over  very  slowly,  in  fact  with  a  spread 
barely  equal  to  nine  miles  an  hour,  for  the  bridge 
is  constructed  in  the  quicksand  and  mud  of  the 
swift  Yellow  River,  and,  while  the  bridge  may 
last  for  ever  so  long,  every  care  having  been  exer¬ 
cised  in  its  building,  it  is  impossible  to  say  when 
a  collapse,  or  a  flood,  or  both,  may  occur. 

The  bridge  is  rather  beautifully  constructed 
and  forms  quite  an  imposing  spectacle,  which  the 
visitor  will  have  difficulty  in  forgetting.  It  has 
been  found  necessary  to  have  three  or  four  Euro¬ 
pean  engineers  constantly  living  on  the  spot ;  and 
immediately  after  a  train  has  passed  over  the 
bridge,  it  is  followed  by  a  trolley,  carrying  an 
engineer,  who  carefully  inspects  the  track  and 
the  structure  itself. 

The  service  of  the  Kin  Han  Railroad,  which 
connects  Peking  with  Hankow  by  a  mostly 


280  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


single-track  line  of  over  seven  hundred  miles,  is, 
to  use  a  mild  expression,  still  in  its  infancy. 

As  has  already  been  mentioned,  the  line — like 
other  but  shorter  lines — is  officially  managed  by 
the  Chinese  Government.  The  Chinese  officials 
again  are  “advised”  by  a  numerous  foreign 
staff,  which,  in  the  case  of  the  Kin  Han,  chiefly 
consists  of  Frenchmen  and  Belgians,  the  mil¬ 
lions  for  its  construction  having  come  from  those 
countries. 

The  inferior  staff,  e.  g.  the  engine-drivers,  con¬ 
ductors,  and  overseers  on  the  line,  is  composed  of 
French,  Italian  and  Greek  elements.  The  char¬ 
acter,  habits,  and  way  of  dressing,  peculiar  to 
these  men,  are  hardly  of  a  nature  to  induce  the 
Chinese  to  measure  the  average  foreigner  by  a 
very  high  standard — a  deplorable  fact  which 
eventually  will  result  in  the  dismissal  of  most  of 
the  foreigners  on  the  line,  their  places  being  filled 
with  sons  of  the  country. 

The  higher  European  officials  seem  to  shiver 
at  the  thought  of  their  Chinese  superiors,  and  I 
happen  to  know  an  inspector-in-chief,  of  whom 
there  are  only  three,  who  was  actually  afraid  to 
reprimand  his  Chinese  station-master  who,  in  my 
presence,  had  insulted  a  foreign  traveller  pretty 
badly.  The  foreigner  naturally  complained  at 
headquarters  in  Peking  to  that  excellent  and 
popular  director-general,  Monsieur  Bouillard, 


TRANSPORTING  A  TWO-TON  MONUMENT  281 


which  brought  the  chief-inspector  a  well-deserved 
rebuke. 

The  fares  on  the  Kin  Han  are  abnormally  high 
and  the  freight-tariff  practically  prohibitive. 

The  transport  of  the  Replica  in  a  railway-car, 
packed  with  other  goods,  and  even  crowds  of 
third-class  passengers,  from  Chengchow  to  Han¬ 
kow,  a  distance  of  some  325  miles,  thus  cost  ap¬ 
proximately  ten  pounds  sterling,  or  fifty  dollars 
gold! 

Although  practically  nobody  uses  the  French 
language  in  northern  China,  where  English  is 
universally  spoken  among  foreigners,  the  travel¬ 
ler  who  can  not  converse  in  French  is  rather 
badly  off  while  travelling,  for  the  Chinese  em¬ 
ployees  on  this  important  line,  with  the  sole  ex¬ 
ception  of  the  dining-car  servants  in  the  weekly 
train-de-luoce ,  a  somewhat  misguiding  designa¬ 
tion,  are  taught  only  French  of  all  foreign 
languages. 

If  this  be  not  altered  in  a  near  future,  one  may 
safely  predict  the  failure  of  the  Kin  Han  as  a 
welcome  travelling  medium  for  foreigners,  es¬ 
pecially  tourists,  who  have  lately  begun  to  direct 
their  attention  toward  the  wonders  of  Peking. 

Although  it  is  upwards  of  forty  years  since  the 
first  railway  in  China,  the  Shanghai- Woosung 
line  of  nine  miles,  was  opened,  I  am,  however, 
sure  that  it  is  only  a  question  of  experience,  and 


282  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


consequently  of  time,  when  the  Chinese  Imperial 
Railways  will  become  as  successful  as  those  of 
other  countries. 

On  the  4th  of  November  I  had  the  unpleasant 
experience  of  being  attacked  at  Chengchow  hy 
some  Chinese  assassins,  who  gave  me  a  blow  in 
the  head  from  behind,  which  produced  a  deep 
wound  that  showed  quite  an  amazing  capacity 
for  bleeding. 

As  I  dropped  unconscious,  I  had  no  chance  to 
pursue  my  assailants;  but  Mr.  Luciani,  who 
fortunately  arrived  very  early  on  the  spot, 
picked  me  up  and  sent  for  the  railway  surgeon, 
an  able  Belgian,  who  stitched  the  wound  and 
gave  me  an  injection  against  the  dreaded  te¬ 
tanus,  lockjaw  being  prevalent  in  those  regions 
owing  to  the  presence  of  the  deadly  microbes  in 
the  Loess-dust. 

Four  days  later  I  was  about  again,  but  I  knew 
it  would  be  of  no  avail  to  report  the  matter  to  the 
Chinese  authorities.  I  entertained  a  suspicion 
that  this  attempt  on  my  life,  the  fourth  I  have 
experienced  in  the  Celestial  Empire  since  1901, 
was  in  some  way  directed  by  those  who  were 
working  against  my  labourious  acquisition  of  the 
Replica  of  the  Nestorian  Monument  of  Sian-fu. 

Meantime,  I  received  discouraging  news  con¬ 
cerning  the  progress  of  the  Replica.  The  roads 
were  reported  to  be  in  a  frightful  state,  one  of 


TRANSPORTING  A  TWO-TON  MONUMENT  283 


the  six  mules  had  died,  two  of  the  men  were 
wounded,  and  the  caravan-leader  in  charge  had 
gone  back  to  Sian-fu  from  Hwayin,  where  the 
stone  remained,  in  order  to  fetch  more  money 
and  buy  another  mule. 

I  believed  only  certain  elements  of  the  story, 
which  reached  me  partly  through  the  narrative  of 
a  native  traveller,  partly  in  a  letter  from  the 
carter  addressed  to  me,  although  not  in  any 
of  the  envelopes  furnished  him  for  just  such 
occasions. 

I  happened  to  know  that  one  or  two  heavy 
carts  had  successfully  passed  the  bad  roads,  and 
although  the  so-called  highway  was  by  no  means 
in  an  easy  condition,  I  felt  much  more  inclined  to 
believe  that  the  provincial  government  of  Shensi, 
in  spite  of  the  governor’s  official  letter  of  protec¬ 
tion,  was  working  behind  the  scenes  to  prevent 
the  transport  of  the  Replica. 

My  presence  at  Hwayin,  or  even  my  accom¬ 
panying  the  Stone  the  whole  distance,  would  have 
been  of  no  avail  whatsoever. 

Whether  the  petty  officials,  inspired  by  their 
suspicions,  or  the  really  bad  state  of  the  roads,  or 
perhaps  both,  were  at  the  bottom  of  the  trouble, 
I  should  never  have  been  able  to  find  out  by  re¬ 
turning  to  Shensi.  I  consequently  decided  to 
proceed  to  Peking,  there  to  lay  my  suspicions 
before  the  Russian  Minister,  then  in  charge  of 


284  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


Danish  interests.  I  therefore  took  the  weekly 
express  for  Peking,  with  which  city  I  thought  I 
had  already  finished  in  April. 

On  the  12th  of  November,  the  Russian  Min¬ 
ister,  a  former  banker,  named  Pokotilow,  granted 
me  a  lengthy  interview,  in  consequence  of  which 
he  kindly  took  it  upon  himself  to  despatch  a  tele¬ 
gram  to  Governor  Chao  of  Shensi,  asking  what 
was  the  matter. 

Not  until  the  15th  did  the  governor’s  reply  to 
the  minister  arrive,  in  the  form  of  a  Chinese 
ciphergram,  a  translation  of  which  ran: 

“Danish  citizen,  Ho-lo-mo,  without  ask¬ 
ing  me,  secretly  hired  workmen  to  execute 
Replica  of  the  Chingchiaopei.  When  the 
copy  was  ready  Ho-lo-mo  himself  con¬ 
cluded  the  contract  for  transportation. 
The  Yang-Wu-Chii  only  gave  a  Laissez- 
Passer  ensuring  unhindered  transport  and 
is  otherwise  not  concerned  in  the  matter. 

In  Shensi  it  has  rained  for  more  than  a 
month,  which  hinders  the  progress  of  the 
heavy  cart.  According  to  yesterday’s  in¬ 
quiries  one  mule  fell  dead,  so  it  is  impos¬ 
sible  to  proceed.  But  the  local  officials 
made  no  obstacles  to  the  carrying  of  the 
stone. 

Chao. 


TRANSPORTING  A  TWO-TON  MONUMENT  285 


It  was  gratifying  to  notice  that  the  old,  anti- 
foreign  opium-consumer  first  of  all  expeditiously 
informed  the  Russian  minister  that  the  Replica 
had  been  executed  without  his  permission,  as  if 
he  would  ever  have  consented  to  grant  such  a 
concession  had  he  been  asked! 

I  may  as  well  reiterate  here  that  the  Yang  Wu 
Chii,  and  not  “Ho-lo-mo,”  made  all  the  arrange¬ 
ments  for  the  transport  of  the  Replica,  and  that 
the  “pass-letter”  was  only  obtained  by  addressing 
the  governor  directly. 

The  provincial  Foreign  Office  was  thus,  having 
practically  fixed  all  the  conditions  itself,  directly 
responsible  for  the  safe  and  speedy  transport  of 
the  Replica,  copies  of  all  the  documents  being 
even  today  kept  on  file  in  the  magistrate’s  yamen 
at  Sian-fu. 

There  can  be  little  or  no  doubt  about  the  fact, 
however,  that  the  Russian  minister’s  telegraphic 
inquiry  had  a  lasting  moral  effect,  and  it  was  par¬ 
tially  due  to  the  legation’s  influence  that  the 
Replica  ever  reached  Chengchow. 

The  diplomatic  world  is  always  a  difficult  one 
for  outsiders  to  fathom,  but  it  is  a  generally 
acknowledged  fact  that  an  outwardly  insignifi¬ 
cant  matter  may  often  help  one  party  to  obtain 
an  advantage  over  the  adversary,  which  again  in¬ 
duces  the  latter  to  yield  rather  than  to  admit  or 
“feel”  the  pull.  And  I  have  not  overlooked  the 


286  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


fact  that  the  negotiations  for  a  new  Russo- 
Chinese  treaty  took  place  in  Peking  during  the 
winter  1907-08. 

During  my  brief  November  stay  at  Peking  I 
paid  my  respects  to  the  illustrious  inspector- 
general  of  the  Chinese  Imperial  Maritime  Cus¬ 
toms,  Sir  Robert  Hart,  Bart,,  G.  C.  M.  G.. 

Sir  Robert  received  me  very  cordially  at  his 
magnificent  residence  and  was  kind  enough  to 
display  a  considerable  amount  of  interest  in  my 
two  journeys  to  Sian-fu  and  my  work  in  connec¬ 
tion  with  the  Chingchiaopei,  which,  of  course,  he 
knew  all  about. 

Although  Sir  Robert  told  me  that  “the  news¬ 
papers  had  been  sending  him  home  for  ever  so 
long,”  it  did  appear  as  if  he  really  were  to 
commence  a  well-earned  holiday  at  home.  Sir 
Robert  holds  the  exalted  Chinese  title  of 
“Kung-pao”  or  “Junior  Guardian  to  the  Heir 
Apparent.” 

Since  I  was  last  in  Peking,  the  two  viceroys, 
Yuan-Shi-Kai  and  Chang-Chi-Tung,  have  been 
called  from  their  seats,  respectively  at  Tientsin 
and  Wuchang,  to  the  central  government  as 
Grand  Councilors  of  State.  It  was  the  general 
opinion  that  their  views  on  most  political  ques¬ 
tions  of  importance  were  diametrically  opposed 
to  one  another,  and  some  unrest  was  undoubtedly 
felt  as  to  the  eventual  outcome  of  such  powerful 


TRANSPORTING  A  TWO-TON  MONUMENT  287 


forces  fighting  in  the  shadow  of  the  Dragon 
Throne. 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  many  other  men 
of  the  moment  in  Peking,  and  may  perhaps  men¬ 
tion  among  them,  Sir  John  Jordan,  British  En¬ 
voy,  Dr.  Morrison  and  Mr.  J.  O.  P.  Bland, 
“Times”  correspondent  and  the  Chinese  Corpo¬ 
ration’s  representative;  Henry  P.  Fletcher  and 
Don  Livio  Borghese,  the  American  and  Italian 
charges  d’affaires;  Lord  Ffrench;  M.  N.  de  Sa- 
vinsky,  Imperial  Russian  Councillor  of  State;  M. 
Roshdestvensky,  principal  secretary  of  the  Rus¬ 
sian  Legation,  and  many  others. 

When  eventually  I  received  information  that 
the  Replica  was  once  more  under  way,  the  muddy 
roads  being  hard  frozen,  I  returned  to  Cheng¬ 
chow,  where  I  arrived  on  November  29th. 

During  the  month  of  December  I  paid  another 
short  business  visit  to  Peking,  which  proved  a 
very  arctic  place  indeed;  and  between  Christmas 
and  N ew  Year  I  made  an  excursion  to  the  capital 
of  Shansi,  Taiyuan-fu,  to  which  important  city  a 
new  railway  line  had  just  been  opened. 

The  line  branches  off  from  the  Kin  Han  at  the 
station  of  Chokiachwang.  Leaving  this  station 
early  in  the  morning,  Taiyuan  is  reached  at  about 
six  o’clock,  the  train  running  through  the  most 
beautiful  mountain  and  river  scenery  that  can 
possibly  be  imagined. 


288  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


At  the  boundary  of  the  provinces  of  Chili  and 
Shansi  the  line  passes  under  a  branch  of  the 
Great  Wall  of  China.  The  wall,  which  is  not  in 
very  good  repair  here,  nor  very  high,  snakes 
along  the  mountain  ridge  as  far  as  the  eye  can 
reach  north  and  south. 

Owing  to  the  mountainous  character  of  the 
country,  the  Taiyuan  railway  has  been  a  very 
difficult  one  to  construct,  and  bridges  of  a  very 
artistic  design,  as  well  as  tunnels,  are  numerous. 
The  gauge  between  the  rails  is  only  one  meter, 
while  the  Kin  Han’s  rails  are  laid  with  a  gauge 
of  1.4  meter.  The  latter  span  has  also  been  used 
by  the  engineers  of  the  Pien-lo  line. 

It  is  likely  to  cause  a  good  deal  of  trouble  and 
annoyance,  not  to  speak  of  expense,  when  some 
time  in  the  future  the  extensions  of  the  Honan-fu 
(of  gauge  1.4)  and  the  Taiyuan-fu  (of  gauge 
1.0)  lines  meet  at  Tungkwan,  or  when  the  1.4 
via  Tungkwan,  and  the  1.0  via  Sanyuan,  eventu¬ 
ally  join  each  other  at  Sian-fu! 

Taiyuan-fu  is  a  large  and  important  city 
within  an  imposing  wall. 

Shansi  has  the  reputation  of  furnishing  the 
empire  with  its  native  bankers.  In  1900  the  Box¬ 
ers  were  responsible  for  savage  attacks  upon  the 
residing  missionaries  of  various  Christian  sects. 

After  passing  Christmas  of  1907  partly  with 
hospitable  railway-engineers,  partly  in  miserable, 


TRANSPORTING  A  TWO-TON  MONUMENT  289 


cold  “Pullman”  cars,  I  returned  to  Peking  for  a 
final  round  of  conferences  with  various  officials 
and  others,  whereupon  I  made  up  my  mind  that 
the  time  was  ripe  to  return  south  and  meet  the 
Replica  at  Chengchow. 


XV 

RETURN  TO  THE  COAST 


I  SPENT  New  Year’s  Day,  1908,  in  the  train 
ambling  south  towards  Chengchow,  where  I 
arrived  on  the  second  in  the  forenoon. 

My  joy  can  easily  be  imagined,  when  a  runner 
from  Magistrate  Yih’s  yamen  told  me,  shortly 
after  I  had  once  again  put  up  under  the  Corsi¬ 
cans’  roof,  that  the  Replica  had  arrived  a  couple 
of  days  earlier,  in  good  condition! 

The  head-carter,  as  is  the  custom  of  the  land, 
had  not  followed  my  instructions  and  reported 
his  arrival  at  the  railway-station,  in  which  case 
the  event  would  have  been  telegraphed  to  me ;  but 
he  had  stored  the  cart,  with  the  precious  Replica, 
in  a  Chinese  inn  in  the  western  suburb,  the 
Sikwan. 

The  Stone  was  thus  delivered  into  my  hands, 
in  spite  of  contracts,  fines,  and  official  protection, 
exactly  two  months  later  than  contract  time. 

As  I  had  the  right  to  impose  a  fine  of  seven 
Taels  per  day  for  time  overdue,  and  as  the  Stone 
arrived  a  bagatelle  of  sixty-three  days  late,  I  was 
entitled  to  receive  231  taels  as  indemnity  from 
the  carter,  the  full  payment  being  210  taels. 


290 


RETURN  TO  THE  COAST 


291 


However,  I  chose  to  impose  no  fine,  even  pay¬ 
ing  the  remaining  balance  in  full — a  way  of  pro¬ 
cedure  which  unquestionably  had  a  strange  effect 
on  the  minds  of  the  Sian-fu  mandarins  when  re¬ 
ported  to  them  after  the  return  of  the  carters. 

Thanks  to  the  moral  influence  of  the  telegram 
from  His  Muscovite  Majesty’s  Minister  in 
Peking  to  Governor  Chao  at  Sian-fu,  the  latter — 
according  to  the  tale  of  the  carter — had  ordered 
the  Replica  to  be  transported  without  delay  to 
Tungkwan  on  the  Yellow  River,  where  “cart, 
stone,  carters,  contractor,  guarantor,  mules,  and 
some  yamen-runners”  had  embarked  on  a  large 
government-scow  on  December  1,  1907,  gliding 
cautiously  down  the  unnavigable  Hwang-ho  to 
some  place  near  Kung-hsien,  from  where  the 
transport  had  been  completed  by  land. 

This  was  a  most  extraordinary  step  to  have 
taken,  for  the  navigation  on  the  Hwang-ho, 
above  113  degrees  E.  L.,  is  next  to  nil,  the  river 
being  shallow  in  many  places,  with  one  or  two 
low  rapids. 

Altogether  the  river- venture  looked  highly  sus¬ 
picious,  and  it  was  a  miracle  that  the  Replica  was 
not  lost  forever. 

I  at  once  made  arrangements  for  the  transpor¬ 
tation  of  the  Stone  to  Hankow  by  railroad,  and 
the  next  morning  had  the  cart  removed  to  the 
station,  where  it  took  us  fully  two  hours  to  push 


292  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


and  pull  the  formidable  Replica  into  freight-car 
number  9017. 

The  car  was  put  on  a  reliable  underground 
weighing-machine  with  and  without  the  uncrated 
Stone,  which  gave  the  exact  weight  of  the  Replica 
as  two  tons  and  twenty-five  kilogrammes — or 
4,464  pounds,  English  weight. 

The  Replica  departed,  well  covered  with  mats, 
at  4.45  p.  m.  on  January  3rd,  while  I  followed  by 
the  daily  train  des  voyageurs  the  next  noon, 
bidding  Chengchow  a  cheerful  farewell. 

The  freight-train  with  the  Stone,  and  my 
passenger-train,  arrived  simultaneously  at  Han¬ 
kow,  where  new  trouble  awaited  us,  late  in  the 
afternoon  on  January  the  5th. 

On  the  8th  a  howling  horde  of  forty-six  coolies 
carried  the  Replica  from  the  railway-station  to 
the  godown,  or  warehouse,  of  Messrs.  Jardine, 
Matheson  &  Company,  one  of  the  oldest  foreign 
firms  in  China.  The  procession  through  the 
streets  had  quite  a  funereal  aspect,  the  coolies 
yelling  the  usual  sing-song,  in  order  to  keep  step, 
at  the  top  of  their  excited  voices. 

During  the  next  few  weeks  many  a  Hankow 
resident,  merchant  as  well  as  missionary,  came  to 
admire  the  beautiful  work  of  the  Sian-fu  stone¬ 
cutters,  and  numerous  were  the  compliments  be¬ 
stowed  upon  my  blushing  self  for  conceiving  and 
carrying  out  such  an  enterprise. 


Arrival  of  the  two-ton  Replica  at  Hankow  Railway-Station 


RETURN  TO  THE  COAST 


293 


V arious  business  arrangements  kept  me  in 
Hankow  until  J anuary  the  20th,  on  which  day  I 
intended  to  take  the  steamer  for  Shanghai,  ac¬ 
companied  by  the  Replica. 

I  accordingly  proceeded  to  the  Chinese  Im¬ 
perial  Custom-House,  where,  in  order  to  save  a 
good  deal  of  time  and  trouble,  I  asked  to  see  the 
Deputy  Commissioner  personally  in  order  to 
hand  him  my  export  application. 

This  gentleman  had  evidently  been  anticipat¬ 
ing  such  a  visit,  and  escorted  me  to  the  commis¬ 
sioner,  a  Mr.  Aglen,  “who,”  he  alleged,  “was 
very  interested  in  the  matter.” 

I  have  till  this  moment  not  been  able  to  unravel 
the  mystery  that  surrounded  that  officious  offi¬ 
cial’s  “interest.” 

After  a  lengthy  conversation,  or  perhaps 
rather  cross-examination,  the  commissioner,  his 
deputy,  and  an  examiner  accompanied  me  to  the 
godown  of  Messrs.  Jardine,  Matheson  &  Com¬ 
pany,  where  they  commenced  to  display  their 
confessed  interest  in  quite  a  singular  manner. 

The  Stone  underwent  one  of  the  most  minute 
customs  examinations  I  have  ever  witnessed. 

It  was  an  edifying  spectacle! 

Mr.  Aglen  and  the  examiner  started  fingering, 
feeling  and  tapping  the  astonished  Monument, 
ran  their  fingers  along  its  edges,  and  seemed 
deeply  engrossed  in  meditation  over  the  wedge- 


294  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


shaped  prolongation  at  the  bottom,  which  was, 
of  course,  intended  to  fix  the  Replica  securely 
when  permanently  erected  in  a  vertical  position. 

I  was  asked  whether  there  was  any  inscription 
on  the  back  of  the  Stone,  which  I  denied;  but 
nevertheless  the  Stela  had  to  be  raised  on  edge, 
so  as  to  verify  my  statement  and  give  the  re¬ 
doubtable  officials  a  chance  to  tap  the  back  with 
inquiring  knuckles. 

I  should  willingly  have  given  a  few  hours  of 
my  life,  or  a  cash  consideration  of  note  to  some 
deserving  charity,  if  I  could  have  been  informed 
what  the  eager  commissioner’s  mysterious  ex¬ 
amination  was  intended  for;  but  this  was  not  to 
be,  and  my  friends  and  I  laid  our  imaginations 
hopelessly  bare  in  interchanging  various  con¬ 
jectures  of  more  or  less  marked  ingenuity. 

Did  the  ardent  commissioner  think  that  the 
Replica  was  a  huge  trap,  containing  precious  ore, 
or  perchance  the  embalmed  body  of  Empress  Wu 
Tse  Tien  of  the  Tang  dynasty? 

Or  did  he  credit  H.  E.  the  Governor  of  Shensi 
and  his  mandarins  with  permitting  me  to  abscond 
with  the  original  monument  ? 

Or  is  it  perhaps  possible,  as  Hankow  gossip 
asserted,  that  the  commissioner  endeavoured  to 
feather  his  own  nest  by  seeking  the  advice  of  the 
Inspectorate- General  at  Peking  concerning  the 
affaire? 


RETURN  TO  THE  COAST 


295 


Who  knows? 

When  the  commissioner  had  finished  demon¬ 
strating  his  monumental  interest,  he  endeavoured 
to  slip  away  unobserved,  but  I  buttonholed  him 
on  the  street  and  asked  him  what  hour  I  could 
call  for  my  shipping-permit.  Mr.  Aglen’s  Solo¬ 
monic,  if  somewhat  evasive  reply,  which  I  took 
care  immediately  to  write  down,  was : 

“I  must  offer  you  my  hearty  congratulations 
on  the  Replica,  you  have  obtained;  it  is  surely  a 
beautiful  piece  of  work.  Unfortunately  I  do  not 
see  my  way  to  grant  you  a  permit  today,  but  I 
shall  wire  to  Peking  for  instructions  and  hope  to 
have  an  answer  in  a  day  or  two!” 

I  asked  for  a  reason,  but  the  Hankow  Commis¬ 
sioner  of  the  Chinese  Imperial  Customs  was  not 
willing  to  furnish  me  with  any;  neither  did  he 
consent  to  state  his  reason  to  the  Danish  Vice- 
Consul,  whom  I  repeatedly  sent  to  remonstrate 
with  him  on  my  behalf  during  the  following 
weeks  of  wasted  time. 

It  is  interesting  to  remember  that  Mr.  Aglen’s 
high  superior,  Sir  Robert  Hart,  when  I  told  him 
about  the  Replica  at  Peking  a  few  weeks  earlier, 
had  uttered  no  objections  whatever  against  its 
being  exported,  but  had,  on  the  contrary,  dis¬ 
played  the  warmest  sympathy  with  my  work. 

The  Stone  thus  officially  became  “taboo”  not 
for  “a  day  or  two,”  but  for  twenty-six  solid  days. 


296  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


Not  until  medio  February  did  I  receive  per¬ 
mission  to  export  the  Stone.  The  procrasti¬ 
nators’  license  came  to  me  in  the  form  of  a 
holograph  letter  from  Mr.  Aglen,  which  I  repro¬ 
duce  in  eootenso: 

Custom  House, 
Hankow,  14th  Feb.  1908. 

Dear  Sir: 

I  beg  leave  to  inform  you  that  I  have 
today  received  from  the  Inspector-Gen¬ 
eral  of  Customs  authority  to  allow  ship¬ 
ment  of  your  Replica  of  the  Hsian 
Nestorian  Tablet. 

I  am,  Dear  Sir, 

Yours  faithfully, 

F.  A.  Aglen, 
Commissioner  of  Customs. 

The  following  day  I  took  out  my  shipping- 
permit,  which  it  had  taken  nearly  a  month  to 
obtain,  and  on  February  the  20th,  after  one 
month’s  delay,  I  left  Hankow  for  Shanghai  by 
the  S.  S.  “Loong  Wo.” 

Already  the  day  before  I  had  the  Stone 
brought  on  board  the  large  British  river-steamer. 

The  Yang-tse  steamboats,  owing  to  the 
great  difference  between  summer-high-water 
and  winter-low-water,  are  all  moored  alongside 
hulks,  usually  old  sailing-ships,  which  are  con- 


RETURN  TO  THE  COAST 


297 


nected  with  the  shore  by  landings  of  no  imposing 
strength. 

The  native  foreman  at  Messrs.  Jardines’  go- 
down  thought  that  twenty-four  coolies  might  be 
able  to  carry  the  two-ton  Replica  the  short  way 
to  the  “Loong  Wo”;  but  as  it  would  not  be  safe 
to  risk  the  planks  of  the  landing-pier,  the  Stone 
was  “walked”  on  board  a  large  pontoon,  after  a 
perilous-looking  descent  from  the  Bund  to  the 
water’s  edge. 

Commissioner  Aglen,  who  happened  to  come 
along  the  Bund  on  his  way  home,  stopped  and 
evinced  additional  “interest”  in  our  labours. 

The  pontoon  was  swung  alongside  the  “Loong 
Wo,”  and  the  Replica  was  safely  laid  in  a  corner 
’tween  decks.  In  less  than  three  days  after  leav¬ 
ing  Hankow,  and  after  an  enjoyable  trip  down 
the  busy,  broad  Yang-tse,  which  I  had  not  nego¬ 
tiated  for  six  years,  and  then  in  the  same  boat, 
we  arrived  one  fine  Sunday  morning  at  Shang¬ 
hai,  which  I  had  left  over  four  years  previously 
after  a  residence  of  some  two  years  and  a  half. 

I  spent  six  busy  days  in  Shanghai,  which  I  did 
not  find  very  much  altered. 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  many  old 
friends  of  various  nationalities,  and  my  time  was 
fully  occupied  with  business,  as  well  as  social 
engagements. 

The  newspapers  wrote  about  the  Replica,  and 


298  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


the  secretary  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society’s 
North  China  Branch,  expressed  a  desire  that  it 
should  be  exhibited  ashore  for  the  benefit  of  the 
members  of  the  society,  I  myself  delivering  a 
lecture  on  my  adventures  in  connection  with  its 
acquisition. 

This,  however,  was  unfortunately  not  possible, 
as  the  Replica  had  to  be  transhipped  without 
delay. 

My  ultimate  destination  being  New  York,  I 
had  decided  to  travel  via  the  Suez  Canal,  in 
order  to  avoid  the  risk  of  breaking  or  chip¬ 
ping  the  Stone  through  too  many  unnecessary 
transshipments. 

The  Suez  route  would,  furthermore,  be  less 
expensive,  while  giving  me  ample  time  to  finish 
this  book. 

I  was  also  confident  that  three  months  of  fresh 
sea-air  would  prove  a  valuable  antidote  against 
the  inhaling,  through  many  months,  of  the  Loess 
of  North  China. 

The  Standard  Oil  Company,  or,  to  be  correct, 
the  Anglo-American  Oil  Company’s  transport, 
the  S.  S.  “Kennebec”  was  loading  in  the  Wham¬ 
poa  River  and,  after  having  made  the  necessary 
arrangements  with  the  agents,  I  had  the  Replica 
hoisted  aboard  the  “Kennebec”  on  February  the 
25th,  and  securely  fixed  in  the  hold  with  a  strong 
skeleton  of  planks. 


RETURN  TO  THE  COAST 


299 


Yet,  I  am  not  certain  that  the  hoisting  aboard 
of  the  nine-foot,  two-ton  Replica  was  not  one  of 
the  most  nerve-racking  moments  during  the  en¬ 
tire  Nestorian  quest. 

It  was  a  principle  of  the  chief -officer  of  the 
good  vessel  “Kennebec”  seldom  to  be  quite  sober, 
and  he  had  not  abandoned  his  principle  on  the 
occasion  when  the  lighter  I  had  chartered 
brought  my  prize  alongside  the  steamer. 

I  clambered  on  board,  and  found  to  my  dismay 
that  the  skipper,  a  stodgy  New  Jersey  salt  of 
uncertain  age,  was  ashore,  wherefore  I  presented 
myself  to  the  chief -officer,  who  instantly  invited 
me  to  partake  of  a  little  hospitality  in  his  cabin 
by  way  of  a  “wee  nip  o’  Scotch.” 

This  festivity,  however,  I  managed  to  post¬ 
pone  until  we  should  have  succeeded  in  getting 
the  Stone  onboard,  so  our  assistant  mariner  at 
once  got  busy  shouting  orders  to  the  lighter-crew 
and  his  own  Chinese  sailors  as  to  how  they  could 
best  hoist  the  Replica. 

Ropes  were  laid  more  or  less  skillfully  under 
his  expert  command,  and  the  steam  was  turned 
on  at  the  winch. 

Slowly  the  ropes  tightened,  and  the  bulky 
Tablet  was  lifted  two  or  three  feet  from  the 
lighter’s  deck,  when — horribile  dictu — it  started 
sliding  through  its  slings  with  increasing  speed. 

I  jumped  towards  the  bo’sun,  signalling  fran- 


300  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


tically  to  lower  the  precious  cargo,  which  was 
done  in  the  last  instant,  thus  hindering  the  two- 
ton  bagatelle  from  crashing  through  the  lighter 
onto  the  river’s  bottom. 

It  was  then  that  a  great  and  lasting  hostility 
between  the  chief-officer  and  myself  arose,  for  I 
found  it  essential  that  I  should  take  the  matter  in 
my  own  hands  and  display  whatever  maritime 
knowledge  might  yet  remain  latent  within  me 
since  naval  days. 

All  knowledge,  apparently,  had  not  vanished. 

I  slid  down  on  the  lighter,  where  I  affixed  a 
new  set  of  slings,  passing  one  under  the  wedge- 
shaped  prolongation  at  the  bottom  of  the  Monu¬ 
ment,  so  that  a  safe  hoist  was  insured  the  Replica. 

The  chief -officer  jeered  at  us. 

Nevertheless,  I  got  the  “wee  nip”  before  I  re¬ 
turned  ashore  to  spend  the  last  couple  of  days  at 
the  old  Astor  House  of  many  a  lively  memory. 

The  “Kennebec”  left  Shanghai  on  the  29th  of 
February,  the  intercalary  day  of  1908.  And, 
when  our  pilot,  Captain  Armistead,  whom  I  had 
known  ever  since  the  spring  of  1901,  left  us  in 
the  afternoon,  the  Replica  and  I  had  started  on 
our  16,000  mile  homeward  voyage  after  eleven 
rather  strenuous  months  on  Chinese  soil. 

There  is  little  to  say  about  the  trip. 

Except  for  the  ship’s  officers,  there  was  but  one 
white  man  on  board  besides  myself — strangely 


(Top)  Twenty-four  coolies  carry  the  Replica  down  the  Hankow 
embankment  for  river  transportation  to  Shanghai. 

(Bottom)  An  anxious  moment:  swinging  the  ten-foot  Replica 
on  hoard  the  S.S.  “Kennebec,”  at  Shanghai,  in  the  Whampoa 
River. 


RETURN  TO  THE  COAST 


301 


enough,  a  compatriot,  turned  American,  named 
C arisen,  who,  at  the  age  of  seventy-two,  was  on 
a  well-earned  venture  around  the  world. 

The  crew  was  Chinese,  the  voyage  was  inter¬ 
minably  long,  and  there  was  but  scant  friendli¬ 
ness  on  board. 

Hongkong,  Manila,  Cebu,  Straits  Settlement, 
Sumatra,  and  the  Suez  Canal  were  put  behind 
one  by  one,  while  I  was  busily  engaged  editing 
the  literary  notes  of  my  quest. 

Without  work,  the  voyage  would  have  been 
torture.  Of  comforts  there  were  none.  Imag¬ 
ine  the  Red  Sea,  with  kerosene  lamps  and  no 
ref rigerator ! 

At  Algiers  old  C arisen  had  had  enough.  He 
somehow  had  it  out  with  the  skipper  and  quit  for 
pastures  European. 

Personally,  I  saw  it  through,  but  there  came  a 
day,  when  I  could  bear  up  no  longer  under  the 
strain  of  the  skipper’s  peculiarities,  nor  under 
the  oft-exhibited  bibulous  quarrelsomeness  of  the 
chief -officer. 

So  I  translated  my  longchair  from  the  lower 
bridge — the  only  piece  of  wooden  deck  on  the 
whole  tramp — to  the  iron  quarter-deck  aft,  where 
I  sat,  during  leisure  hours,  with  the  engineers, 
who  on  the  whole  proved  infinitely  more  pleasant 
than  the  officers  of  the  watch. 

One  day  Boston  hove  into  sight ! 


302  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


My  reception  there,  whither  clippings  from  the 
Far  Eastern  papers,  as  well  as  the  cables  of 
James  Gordon  Bennett,  whom  I  met  at  Manila 
where  he  entertained  me  on  his  yacht,  the 
“Lysistrata,”  had  preceded  the  slow  “Kenne¬ 
bec, 5  J  was,  to  say  the  least,  festive,  for  a  score 
of  reporters  and  photographers,  as  well  as  a 
post-graduate  student  or  two  from  Harvard 
University,  met  me  at  the  Mystic  Wharf. 

It  all  somewhat  embarrassed  me,  as  I  wanted 
to  be  left  alone  until  I  had  conferred  with  my  as¬ 
sociates.  Yet,  “Nestorian”  publicity  has  known 
no  let-up,  so  far  as  the  Replica  and,  conse¬ 
quently,  the  present  writer,  are  concerned,  since 
the  day  I  descended  upon  Hankow  with  my 
prize.  And  that  is  more  than  fifteen  years  ago. 

Professor  George  F.  Moore,  who  holds  the 
chair  of  Comparative  Religion  in  Harvard  Uni¬ 
versity,  received  me,  and  I  was  given  a  luncheon 
by  some  friends  in  the  students’  refectory. 

On  the  last  day  of  May,  1908,  the  “Kennebec” 
finally  reached  New  York,  ninety-two  days  after 
leaving  Shanghai. 

The  Replica  was  safe  at  what  eventually 
proved  but  its  temporary  destination,  and  I  had 
thus  finished  my  field-task,  as  well  as  my  second 
circumnavigation  of  the  globe,  in  sixteen  months. 


XVI 

FATE  OF  THE  REPLICA 


TO  write  in  retrospect  at  this  late  date,  on 
the  subject  of  the  fate  of  the  two-ton 
Nestorian  Replica  is  rather  a  pleasure. 
Before  the  Stone  landed  in  a  safe  harbour, 
from  where  exit  or  return  is  unlikely,  much  had 
to  be  experienced  by  way  of  hard  work,  personal 
sacrifice,  bitter  fight,  and  many  another  phase  of 
life,  which  the  average  human  is  often  spared. 
Yet,  it  was  all  in  the  day’s  work! 

From  the  joy  of  discussing  the  Monument  and 
the  expedition  with  cultured,  interested  uni¬ 
versity  professors,  clergymen  and  others,  to  the 
bringing  of  an  easily-won  libel-suit  for  curiously 
fantastic  allegations ;  from  lecturing  within  fields 
bordered  on  one  side  of  the  Atlantic  by  Quebec, 
Mexico  City,  Boston,  and  Chicago,  and  on  the 
other  side  of  the  ocean  by  Copenhagen  and 
Rome,  to  denying  oneself  sometimes  even  necessi¬ 
ties  in  order  to  be  able  to  give  away  nine-foot 
casts  of  the  Replica  to  eager  governments  and 
intent  museums;  from  being  loudly  lauded  in 
public  one  day,  to  being  delectably  damned  with 
faint  praise  the  next — all  of  it  was  experienced 


303 


304  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


and  enjoyed,  for  it  all  proved  Life,  true  and  un¬ 
protected,  and  sometimes  even  primitive. 

But  to  go  back  to  the  lot  of  the  Replica  after 
its  arrival  in  New  York. 

Needless  to  say,  one  of  the  first  men  I  looked 
up  was  Sir  Purdon  Clarke,  the  director  of  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  on  Fifth  Avenue, 
whose  fatherly  interest  and  advice  had  encour¬ 
aged  me  so  much  the  year  before,  when  I 
started  out. 

Sir  Purdon’s  office  was  bathed  in  the  sunshine 
of  a  warm  New  York  spring-day,  when  he  re¬ 
ceived  me  with  outstretched  hand.  I  almost 
immediately  gave  him  a  photograph  of  the 
Monument,  as  well  as  one  or  two  others  showing 
various  phases  of  transporting  the  Replica  in 
China. 

“Well,”  said  Sir  Purdon  pensively,  “if  your 
Replica  looks  anything  like  that,  we  certainly 
want  to  have  it  here !  But  I  must  tell  you  that, 
according  to  our  rules  for  loaned  objects,  it  will 
have  to  remain  on  view  for  at  least  six  months.” 

I  agreed. 

I  did  not  then  anticipate  that  the  new  Nesto- 
rian  Monument  was  destined  to  remain  in  the 
museum  not  six  months,  but  eight  solid  years. 

Had  I  read  my  accumulated  mail  at  the  time  I 
visited  Sir  Purdon,  I  might  not  so  readily  have 
agreed  to  let  the  museum  borrow  the  Replica. 


FATE  OF  THE  REPLICA 


305 


For,  among  my  innumerable  letters  from  all 
over  the  globe,  practically  all  of  them  dealing 
in  some  way  with  the  expedition  just  finished,  I 
found  one  from  H.  E.  Dr.  Vilhelm  Thomsen,  a 
most  illustrious  compatriot,  who  had  been  desig¬ 
nated  President  of  the  International  Congress  of 
Orientalists,  to  be  convoked  in  Copenhagen  dur¬ 
ing  August,  1908. 

He  now  invited  me,  a  youngster  of  twenty-six, 
to  become  a  member  of  the  congress,  to  bring 
“the  very  remarkable  Replica”  to  Copenhagen, 
and  there  to  lecture  on  the  Monument  and  my 
expedition  before  the  international  gathering,  in 
a  charming  holograph  communication,  dated 
Copenhagen,  May  10th,  1908. 

Unfortunately,  after  the  heavy  expense  of  the 
quest,  it  was  not  possible  for  me  unconditionally 
to  accept;  and  I  have  frequently  enough  re¬ 
gretted  that  Professor  Thomsen’s  invitation  did 
not  reach  me  a  little  earlier,  so  that  I  might  have 
gone  north,  in  lieu  of  west,  from  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules. 

Mr.  Asa  Steele  was  commissioned  by  The  New 
York  Times  to  write  a  full  account  of  my  efforts 
in  China,  and  the  publication  of  his  full-page 
article  in  its  Sunday  magazine  section  inspired 
new  inundations  of  publicity,  national  and  inter¬ 
national,  which  was  indeed  highly  useful  in 
spreading  knowledge  about  the  Nestorian  Monu- 


306  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


ment — hitherto  unknown  except  to  a  few  stu¬ 
dents — but  which  did  not,  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
result  in  obtaining  for  the  Replica  any  perma¬ 
nent  home. 

My  family  and  friends,  as  well  as  Messrs. 
Whelpley  and  Lyman,  who  had  contributed 
towards  the  expenses  of  the  expedition,  and  I, 
myself,  having  sold  everything  I  could  go  with¬ 
out  in  order  to  see  the  materialization  of  my 
hopes,  were  naturally  all  anxious  to  see  the 
Replica  “settled”  in  an  appropriate  home. 

We  had  expected  facilely  to  bring  this  about 
by  inducing  some  man  or  woman  of  public- 
spirited  tendencies  to  donate  the  beautiful  result 
of  the  Chinese  stone-cutters’  art  to  one  of  the 
better  museums. 

Herein  we  were  grossly  mistaken. 

Sir  Purdon  Clarke  told  me  that  the  Metro¬ 
politan  Museum  would  gladly  accept  the  Replica 
as  a  gift ;  but  no  donor  ever  turned  up,  though  I 
searched  high  and  low. 

The  late  Mr.  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  whom  I  met 
on  two  or  three  occasions,  and  who  assured  me  of 
his  interest  in  my  work,  was  at  that  time  presi¬ 
dent  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum,  but  although 
he  and  his  fellow-trustees  were  informed  about 
the  opportunity  of  acquiring  the  Stela  at  cost, 
nothing  decisive  ensued. 

Mr.  Charles  Freer,  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie, 


FATE  OF  THE  REPLICA 


307 


whom  I  several  times  visited  in  his  home  at  his 
invitation;  Mrs.  Russell  Sage,  who  was  said  to  be 
especially  interested,  like  Mr.  Morgan,  in  the 
Church;  and  a  number  of  others,  were  ap¬ 
proached.  But  they  made  no  move. 

It  was  intimated  that,  as  long  as  the  Stela  was 
publicly  and  gratis  accessible  in  a  municipal 
museum,  there  was  no  reason  why  the  wealthy  or 
the  public-spirited,  or  both,  should  bother  them¬ 
selves  with  its  acquisition. 

The  National  Museum  in  Washington,  which 
forms  part  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  whose 
chief  was  then,  and  is  now,  the  able  Dr.  Charles 
D.  Walcott,  was  anxious  to  acquire  the  Replica, 
but  a  congressional  appropriation  was  not 
thought  easy  of  attainment. 

Here  is  what  the  head  of  the  National  Mu¬ 
seum,  Dr.  Rathbun,  wrote  to  his  chief,  Dr. 
Walcott,  under  date  of  February  4,  1909,  while 
I  was  myself  temporarily  employed  in  that 
institution : 

“ — should  this  Stone  be  purchased  by  Mr. 
Larz  Anderson  or  anyone,  as  a  contribution  to 
the  National  Museum,  it  would  be  a  very  gra¬ 
cious  act,  and  the  object  would  constitute  an 
important,  notable  addition  to  the  national 
collections.” 

Yet,  neither  Washington,  nor  New  York,  nor 
Philadelphia,  where  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell  dem- 


308  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


onstrated  considerable  interest,  nor  any  of  the 
other  large  cities,  where  men  and  women  with 
national  reputations  busied  themselves  for  a  brief 
while  with  the  Stone  so  as  to  try  and  divert  it  to 
their  own  centre  and  obtain  the  credit  that  would 
thus  fall  due  from  a  grateful  community,  seemed 
to  succeed  in  reaching  any  definite  result,  al¬ 
though  three-quarter  promises  were  as  frequent 
as  one  dared  reasonably  to  expect. 

It  was  a  more  or  less  discouraging  situation, 
and  my  friends  and  I  soon  put  the  brakes  on  our 
own  energy,  for  it  became  increasingly  obvious 
that  we  could  not  hope  to  become  reimbursed,  so 
long  as  the  Replica  was  publicly  accessible. 

No  one  appreciated  the  need  of  securing  it, 
when  it  could  be  inspected  and  examined  gratis 
five  days  a  week  by  anyone  interested,  and  the 
two  remaining  days  for  a  quarter! 

Meanwhile,  the  Monument  remained  at  its  ap¬ 
pointed  place  in  the  art  museum  of  New  York, 
close  by  the  entrance  to  the  Bishop  jade  collec¬ 
tion,  and  many  were  the  distinguished  visitors 
who,  as  time  went  by,  came  from  near  and  far  in 
order  to  inspect  and  admire  the  faithful  repro¬ 
duction  of  one  of  history’s  most  interesting 
inscriptions  on  stone. 

The  situation,  indeed,  was  a  peculiar  one. 

Here  was  the  prize  of  an  expedition  that  had 
cost  thousands  of  dollars,  universally  praised  by 


FATE  OF  THE  REPLICA 


309 


professors,  priests,  and  press,  while  others,  less 
professional,  sang  the  chorus. 

Here  the  fruit  of  a  widely  lauded  endeavour 
was  exhibited  in  one  of  the  world’s  richest  and 
most  important  art  museums,  receiving  visits 
from  lay  and  learned  alike,  while  theses  and 
treatises  were  being  broadcasted  about  its  history 
and  its  rightful  rank  in  archaeology,  composed  in 
a  dozen  languages,  and  printed  in  a  score  of 
countries. 

Here  the  result  of  a  quest  into  comparatively 
speaking  inaccessible  and  turbulent  regions  of 
the  earth,  had  caused  many  a  learned  body  in 
various  countries  to  elect  its  commander  to  hon¬ 
orary  or  corresponding  fellowship,  even  to  bestow 
upon  him  their  medals,  presented  supposedly  for 
deeds  well  done;  while  numerous  governments 
had  followed  suit  by  officially  recognizing  the 
scientific  value  of  his  efforts  through  conferment 
of  their  decorations. 

Here  was  a  situation,  where  an  archgeologic  ex¬ 
pedition,  conducted  intentionally  till  its  very 
termination  without  fanfare  or  extravagance, 
had  won  approval  to  the  extent  that  I  had  been 
permitted,  and  sometimes  even  re-invited,  to 
lecture  in  almost  all  the  important  universities  in 
the  eastern  states,  and  before  archgeologic  and 
geographic  bodies  here  and  abroad. 

And  yet,  the  Stela  remained  in  the  Metropoli- 


310  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


tan  Museum  of  Art  in  New  York  for  eight 
years — as  a  loan! 

It  seemed  plain  that,  despite  all  the  enthusi¬ 
asm,  all  the  favourable  publicity,  all  the  three- 
quarter  promises  from  influential  American  men 
and  women  to  acquire  the  Stone  for  their  coun¬ 
try,  there  was  no  real,  sustained  effort  to  carry 
out  any  such  intention  at  all. 

It  was,  to  speak  inelegantly,  all  “hot  air” — at 
least,  as  soon  as  it  came  to  a  question  of  digging 
down  into  one’s  purse  to  cover  the  cost  of  the 
quest  in  order  to  secure  the  prize. 

The  principal  part  of  the  capital  for  the  expe¬ 
dition  had  come  out  of  the  United  States.  It 
would,  consequently,  have  given  me  great  pleas¬ 
ure  to  see  the  Replica  remain  the  property  of  the 
nation,  placed  worthily  in  the  X ational  Museum 
at  the  federal  capital. 

Failing  this,  I  should  have  been  glad  if  Sir 
Purdon  Clarke’s  wish  to  retain  the  Stone  in  New 
York  could  have  been  fulfilled,  or  if  the  Monu¬ 
ment  could  have  gone  to  any  other  good  museum 
in  the  country. 

But  this  was  not  to  be ! 

Unfortunately,  Sir  Purdon  retired,  and  event¬ 
ually  died,  not  long  after  my  return  to  New 
York. 

His  successor,  Mr.  Edward  Robinson,  never 
did  manifest  any  interest  in  the  Monument.  He 


FATE  OF  THE  REPLICA 


311 


simply  kept  quiet  and  let  the  Stone  stand,  re¬ 
membering,  probably,  the  admitted  interest  of 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  It.  W.  de  Forest,  and  other 
trustees,  who  were  his  direct  superiors. 

Meanwhile,  I  went  on  with  my  work. 

The  results  attained  through  my  expedition  I 
generally  divide  into  chapters,  as  it  were,  al¬ 
though  I  realize  that  the  principal  goal  of  all  my 
efforts  was  to  make  known  to  the  world  the  phys¬ 
ical  remaining  proof  of  one  of  the  greatest  ro¬ 
mances  of  history,  that  is,  the  early  introduction 
of  Christianity  into  the  Chinese  Empire  of  the 
golden  Tang  era,  in  a.  d.  635 — more  than  six 
centuries  and  a  half  ere  the  arrival  of  the  second 
mission,  that  of  Pome,  under  J ohn  of  Montecor- 
vino  in  a.  d.  1292. 

Among  the  results  I  count  the  following: 

Obtaining  the  Replica ;  presenting  a  dozen  re¬ 
productions  in  plaster  of  the  Replica  to  so  many 
countries;  causing  the  original  Monument  to  be 
put  under  roof;  lecturing  widely;  writing  person¬ 
ally  and  vicariously  of  the  inscription. 

Commenting  upon  these  five  milestones  I  am 
led  to  observe : 

First:  An  exact  Replica — the  only  one  in  ex¬ 
istence — carved  in  the  same  material  as  the  origi¬ 
nal,  of  the  Nestorian  Monument  of  China  was 
obtained.  It  was  exhibited  as  a  loan  in  New 
York  from  1908-1916;  and  early  in  1917  it  was 


312  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


put  permanently  on  view  in  the  foremost  Chris¬ 
tian  Museum  extant,  that  of  the  Lateran  in 
Rome,  as  pontifical  property. 

Second:  Twelve  Casts  of  the  Replica,  sturdily 
made  of  coloured  plaster,  have  been  distributed, 
as  gifts  from  me,  mostly  without  any  subven¬ 
tion  whatsoever.  They  may  now  be  seen  in  the 
following  places :  the  N ational  Archgeologic  Mu¬ 
seum  of  Athens;  the  Indian  Museum  of  Cal¬ 
cutta;  the  National  Museum  of  Caracas;  the 
Great  Royal  Library  of  Copenhagen;  the  Na¬ 
tional  Archgeologic  Museum  of  Madrid ;  the 
National  Museum  of  Mexico  City;  McGill  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Montreal;  Yale  University  of  New 
Haven;  the  National  Guimet  Museum  of  Paris; 
and  the  Biblical  Institute  of  Rome.  Two  more 
Casts  are  on  their  way  to  the  State  Museum  for 
Anthropology  of  Berlin,  and  to  the  Imperial 
University  of  Kioto.  A  thirteenth  Cast  is  ready 
for  Robert  College  in  Constantinople,  should 
that  hapless,  patriarchal  seat  of  Nestorius  ever 
quiet  down  again. 

I  hope  yet  to  distribute  one  or  two  Casts  to 
centres  that  are  really  interested,  although  this 
appreciable  strain  on  my  finances  must  very  soon 
cease  forever. 

Third ;  One  indirect  result  of  my  expedition, 
that  of  causing  the  original  Chingchiaopei  to  be 
put  permanently  under  roof,  in  which  endeavour 


*  »*<#»•>  ■  ■•  *  ,t 

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& „  4  v  ,.  -  .  •  V  ■ 

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**.<k  (  4  *E?1  1.-  s  i  ; 

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.  ;  «••,«' #-•>..  «#*  =  ■  %  .«•*}.  •" 

-  A  *  **. *}£&?■&  <  '  - 

if.  f- -  *,  8  *v;:‘  r  *■*.■  ■  &>,  ■ 

-<•  *«■.-#  ■■  ■  ■,  "‘f  4*^  «!••*  .  iK- ■  ■-  -:  v  g  - v  :■  *S.: 


1;.*.  wa9b. 


mm* n  w 


t  ihi 


I  IP 


Full-size  Cast  of  the  Nestorian  Replica  in  Yale  University,  the 
only  reproduction  in  the  U.S.A.  The  author  has  presented  a 
dozen  similar  Casts  to  so  many  countries  as  mentioned  in  the 
text;  one  or  two  more  may  yet  be  cast  from  the  Replica  in 
Rome  for  museums  or  other  centres  of  learning  as  gifts 
from  Dr.  Holm. 


. 


■ 

* 


. 


i. 


* 


. 

• 

' 

FATE  OF  THE  REPLICA 


313 


missionaries  and  diplomats  alike  had  dismally 
failed  for  decades,  has  been  related  elsewhere; 
but  the  removal  into  Sian-fu  of  the  Monument  is 
so  gratifying  a  fact  that,  as  such,  it  readily  bears 
repetition. 

Fourth:  Fifty  times,  and  more,  I  have  deliv¬ 
ered  my  illustrated  lecture  on  the  Monument  and 
my  expedition,  in  Europe  and  America,  some¬ 
times  speaking  in  universities,  sometimes  before 
learned  bodies,  sometimes,  though  more  seldom, 
before  private  gatherings. 

Fifth:  Besides  the  present  popular  account  of 
my  work,  I  have  published  technical  reports  and 
archaeological  observations  anent  the  inscription 
and  allied  questions,  while  great  numbers  of  ar¬ 
ticles  in  scientific  periodicals,  popular  magazines, 
and  newspapers  have  appeared,  and  still  do  ap¬ 
pear,  in  both  capital  and  minor  cities,  as  well  as 
in  the  remotest  corners  of  the  globe,  as  evidenced 
by  the  necessarily  limited  contents  of  my  scrap¬ 
book,  making  more  widely  known  the  great  me¬ 
morial  of  what  is  today  termed  the  East  Assyrian 
Church,  the  Nestorian  Monument  of  China. 

N ot  everybody,  however,  seems  to  have  agreed 
with  the  above  indicated  results  as  facts. 

From  time  to  time,  a  book  or  two  have  ap¬ 
peared,  the  authors  of  which  would  prove  travel¬ 
lers  who  had  gone  as  far  as  Sian-fu — sometimes 
even  farther. 


314  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


If  the  mention  of  the  Nestorian  Monument  by 
these  writers  can  be  taken  as  a  criterion  by  which 
to  weigh  the  rest  of  the  information  offered  in 
their  books,  they  might  better  have  remained 
unprinted. 

Casually  I  select  the  following  contributions, 
intended  for  an  eagerly  waiting  world  of  science: 

Robert  Sterling  Clark,  an  American,  wrote  a 
book  concerning  Shensi  and  Kansu  provinces. 
In  it  he  mentions  Sian-fu  and  the  Monument, 
and  he  volunteers  the  information,  referring  to 
the  Replica  and  me,  that  “after  endless  trouble 
with  Customs  officials  and  others,  he  dumped  it 
down  and  left  it  somewhere  along  the  Yang-tse.” 

When  Mr,  Clark  was  apprized  of  his  error, 
he  did  not  prove  sportsmanlike  enough  even  to 
express  regret.  Probably  his  own  reported 
troubles  with  the  authorities  in  China  were  of 
such  a  nature  that  he  was  but  too  anxious 
to  banish  everything  Celestial  from  his  mind 
forever. 

Then  I  recall  the  irrepressible  traveller,  Wil¬ 
liam  Edgar  Geil,  also  an  American,  who  pinned 
a  homemade  flag  onto  what  he  considered  the 
terminus  of  the  Great  Wall,  and  who  later  went 
visiting  all  eighteen  provincial  capitals  of  China 
proper.  Mr.  Geil  knocks  a  couple  of  feet  off  the 
height  of  our  Monument  in  describing  it  and  then 
goes  on  to  tell  about  “some  white  men,”  who 


FATE  OF  THE  REPLICA 


315 


came  upon  the  Stone,  “and  made  very  careful 
arrangements  to  reproduce  it  exactly.”  Mr. 
Geil,  who  avers  he  outdid  Stanley  in  Africa,  con¬ 
cludes:  “In  this  they  were  so  successful  that  local 
rumour  credited  them  with  the  intention  of  leav¬ 
ing  the  Replica  and  marching  off  with  the 
original — .” 

Then  there  was  a  British  consular  official,  by 
name  Eric  Teichman,  who  went  to  Shensi  re¬ 
cently.  Even  at  this  late  date,  travellers  to 
Sian-fu  remain  unfamiliar  with  the  work  which 
has  been  done  to  make  the  Stone  known.  Mr. 
Teichman  proved  that  he  was  not  well-posted, 
but,  at  least,  he  was  sportsman  enough  to 
stand  corrected  when  his  error  was  courteously 
pointed  out. 

Last,  but  not  least,  there  was  considerable 
mention  in  one  of  Mr.  Roy  Chapman  Andrews’s 
recent  articles,  in  a  New  York  magazine  called 
“Asia,”  of  the  city  of  Sian-fu.  In  a  few  lines — a 
mere  paragraph — this  zoologist  succeeded  in  pre¬ 
senting  more  mistakes  concerning  the  Stone  than 
tolerably  permissible.  A  spectral  photograph  of 
the  Monument  in  the  Peilin  accompanied  Mr. 
Andrews’s  venture  into  archaeology. 

It  would  have  been  infinitely  more  thrilling  to 
read  about  the  serious  trouble,  including  arrest 
according  to  Mr.  Hagquist,  that  Mr.  Andrews 
and  his  hunter-companion  experienced  with  the 


316  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


Christian  General  Feng  in  Shensi,  who  objected 
to  their  old-fashioned  conception  of  the  white 
man’s  rights  and  burdens  and  what  not. 

To  return  to  the  question  of  the  fate  of  the 
Replica,  I  remember  presenting  in  the  autumn  of 
1909  a  letter  of  introduction  to  Dr.  N.  M.  Butler, 
the  head  of  Columbia  University  in  New  York, 
from  a  mutual  friend,  Mr.  J.  Coleman  Drayton, 
in  order  to  hear  whether  Professor  Butler  might 
be  able  to  offer  any  suggestion,  whereby  the 
Replica  could  be  secured  for  the  United  States. 

I  was  referred  to  Professor  Friedrich  Hirth, 
the  chief  of  the  Chinese  department  in  the  uni¬ 
versity,  who  had  come  with  me  the  year  before  to 
the  museum  in  order  to  inspect  the  fruit  of  my 
labours  from  the  sinological  point  of  view. 

Like  other  sinologues,  Dr.  Hirth,  who  had 
spent  several  decades  in  China’s  foreign  custom’s 
service,  agreed  that  the  inscription  was  a  speak¬ 
ing  proof  of  the  skill  of  eastern  craftsmanship, 
and  even  wrote  me  a  cordial  letter,  dated  October 
28,  1908,  from  which  I  quote  the  following 
passage : 

44 — the  scientific  value  of  your  expedition  to 
Sian-fu  is  beyond  dispute.  The  similarity  of  all 
the  detail  in  the  Chinese  and  Syriac  portions  of 
the  text,  as  compared  with  both  a  rubbing  and  a 
photograph  taken  of  the  original,  is  quite  re¬ 
markable,  and  I  think  that,  next  to  the  original 


FATE  OF  THE  REPLICA 


317 


itself,  no  reproduction  could  give  us  a  better  idea 
of  the  Stone,  which  ever  since  its  discovery  has 
been  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  important  sub¬ 
jects  of  Chinese  archaeological  research.  Your 
idea  of  having  plaster-casts  made  of  your  Replica 
is  a  good  one, — and  I  hope  we  shall  soon  see  the 
Monument  represented  in  that  shape  in  the 
museums  of  Europe  and  America.- — ” 

Dr.  Hirth’s  hope  has  been  fulfilled  during  his 
well-earned  otium  cum  dignitate  in  Munich, 
where  this  delightful,  aged  scholar  retired  after 
the  pact  of  Versailles. 

Professor  Hirth,  however,  is  not  the  only  sino¬ 
logue  who  has  passed  on  the  wonderful  accuracy 
and  beauty  of  the  Replica. 

The  Chinese  minister  in  Rome,  Mr.  Wang 
Kuang  Ky,  who  is  an  acknowledged  classical 
scholar,  examined  the  inscription  with  care  in  the 
Lateran,  while  the  Rev.  W.  Hagquist,  a  mission¬ 
ary  at  Sian-fu,  when  on  furlough  in  the  States, 
examined  it  in  New  York.  Both  found  it  highly 
satisfactory. 

Professor  Yoshisaburo  Okakura  of  Tokio  vis¬ 
ited  and  examined  the  Replica  in  New  York 
during  1909  and,  according  to  his  colleague, 
Professor  P.  Y.  Saeki,  “found,  to  his  satisfac¬ 
tion,  that  it  was  a  very  good  Replica  indeed.” 

Professor  Kuwabara,  of  the  Imperial  Uni¬ 
versity  at  Kioto,  in  company  with  Professor 


318  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


XJno,  were  in  Sian-fu  for  a  while  in  the  fall  of 
1907,  and  they  learned  of  my  task  there,  al¬ 
though  I  did  not  have  the  honour  of  making  their 
acquaintance. 

Professor  Okakura  was  undoubtedly  inspired 
to  make  his  visit  to  the  museum  in  New  York  by 
the  writings  of  his  two  compatriots  about  their 
travels  in  northwest  China  and  the  Stone. 

When  the  Replica  had  been  in  the  Metropoli¬ 
tan  Museum  for  eight  years,  the  new  curator  of 
Par  Eastern  art,  a  Hollander  by  name  of  Mr. 
S.  C.  Bosch  Reitz,  decided  that  he  wanted  the 
space  occupied  by  the  Stone  for  something  else, 
and  a  ukase  was  consequently  promulgated  to 
that  effect. 

Such  an  occurrence,  of  course,  would  have  been 
unthinkable  in  the  days  of  Sir  Purdon  Clarke. 

It  is  not  for  me  to  divulge  in  this  book  the 
motives  behind  this  move,  but  I  hope  to  speak  of 
them  elsewhere.  Suffice  it  to  say  that,  while 
some  unimportant  exhibit  was  temporarily 
placed  in  the  space  which  the  Replica  had  so  long 
occupied,  that  spot  was  for  years  utterly  inno¬ 
cent  of  being  invested,  except  by  air,  although  a 
piece  of  ceramic  was  put  there  on  a  wooden  ped¬ 
estal  about  a  year  ago  according  to  its  Cerberus. 

Thus  the  museum,  after  eight  years  loanship, 
but  without  prospect  of  becoming  its  owner, 
gratefully  ejected  the  Replica. 


FATE  OF  THE  REPLICA 


319 


The  unexpected  result  of  this  surprising  act 
was  that  the  Monument,  within  a  few  months, 
came  to  occupy  a  place  of  honour,  opposite  the 
principal  entrance,  amidst  the  greatest  Christian 
collections  ever  assembled,  namely  those  in  the 
beautiful  former  palace  of  the  popes,  the  Lateran 
in  Rome. 

It  was  during  the  summer  of  1916  that  the 
Stela  was  laboriously  brought  downstairs  into 
the  basement  of  the  New  York  Museum,  where 
it  enjoyed  a  well-earned  rest  behind  lock  and  key, 
until  I  had  it  motor-trucked  to  the  workshop  of 
a  moulder,  who  could  build  a  protecting  skeleton 
of  planks  around  it. 

From  the  workshop,  my  favourite  companion, 
to  wit  the  Replica,  and  I  set  sail  on  the  “Duca 
d’Aosta”  for  Genoa  on  October  21,  1916. 

Prolonged  negotiations  had  taken  place  during 
the  past  few  months,  and  the  nominal  ownership 
of  the  Stone  had  again  been  transferred. 

The  new  legal  owner,  a  Roman  Catholic  con¬ 
vert,  asked  me  what  I  thought  best,  and  I  replied 
that  decision  depended  upon  whether  one  desired 
to  serve  one’s  country  or  one’s  spiritual  head  in 
such  a  case. 

The  donor  had  the  choice  of  presenting  the 
Monument  either  to  the  National  Museum  in 
Washington,  where  Dr.  Walter  Hough  and  I 
had  once  tentatively  selected  a  suitable  spot  for 


320  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


the  Stela,  or  to  the  Pontiff  in  Rome,  to  whom  I 
had  myself  the  year  before  presented  a  Cast  of 
the  Stone,  like  those  I  had  given  to  Denmark  and 
other  countries,  and  which  had  been  set  up  in  the 
Lateran. 

It  was  finally  decided  that  the  Replica  should 
go  to  Rome,  and,  truth  to  tell,  I  was  not  against 
it  being  lost  to  the  United  States,  where,  for  up¬ 
wards  of  a  decade,  men  and  women  had  given  me 
the  one  near-promise  of  reimbursement  after 
the  other,  but  where  no  such  promise  had  been 
redeemed. 

To  the  future  pleasure  of  jotting  down  some 
autobiographic  notes  belong  the  details  of  the 
victorious  entry  and  permanent  erection  of  the 
Replica  in  Rome  and  my  own  pleasant  experi¬ 
ences  in  the  Eternal  City. 

Here  I  shall  simply  outline  that — despite 
Austrian  submarines,  and  a  new  set  of  trou¬ 
blesome  customs  officials — the  Stone  and  I 
arrived  at  our  destination,  and  that,  on  No¬ 
vember  26,  1916,  at  the  first  of  my  private 
audiences  of  Pope  Benedict  XV,  I  formally 
offered  the  prize  of  my  Chinese  quest  to  His 
Holiness  on  behalf  of  the  distant  convert  in  New 
York. 

There  was,  financially,  something  exquisitely 
humourous  in  this  act  of  homage ! 

For  the  Replica,  when  it  was  re-erected  in  the 


FATE  OF  THE  REPLICA 


321 


Lateran,  early  in  1917,  stood  my  associates  and 
me  in  some  140,000  Lire  at  a  moment  when  the 
exchange  was  around  6.40  Lire  to  the  dollar,  and 
of  this  sum  the  “donor”  had  furnished  less  than 
one-third,  while  my  family  and  friends,  and  I 
myself,  pocketed  the  remaining  two-thirds  as  a 
dead  loss  and  let  it  go  at  that. 

My  ten  weeks  in  Rome  passed  like  so  many 
days. 

I  feel  sorry  that  I  am  not  to  relate  here  all  the 
kindly  hospitality  that  I  was  the  object  of,  de¬ 
spite  the  war,  nor  of  the  considerable  interest 
that  the  arrival  and  erection  of  the  Stela  created, 
among  “blacks  and  whites”  alike. 

However,  besides  the  gracious  benevolence  of 
Pope  Benedict,  I  benefitted  by  the  kind  interest 
and  wise  decisions  of  a  number  of  men,  among 
whom  I  must  mention  Cardinal  Gasparri,  Cardi¬ 
nal  Gasquet,  Cardinal  Falconio,  Signor  Galli, 
the  director-general  of  the  pontifical  museums; 
Commendatore  Professor  Orazio  Marucchi,  the 
famous  Vatican  archaeologist  and  director  of  the 
Christian  Museum  of  the  Lateran,  and  many 
others,  including  the  charming  and  accomplished 
diplomat,  Monsignor  Sanz  de  Samper,  now 
pontifical  Major  Domo. 

The  Danish  minister,  an  old  acquaintance,  Mr. 
Andreas  Oldenburg,  as  well  as  the  Chinese  min¬ 
ister,  mentioned  above,  entertained  me ;  while  the 


822  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


American  ambassador,  the  novelist,  Dr.  Thomas 
Nelson  Page,  received  me  and  expressed  his  in¬ 
terest  in  the  Replica  and  his  deep  regret  that  it 
had  not  been  retained  in  America. 

The  above  mentioned  names  are  chosen  at  ran¬ 
dom  and  not  out  of  my  diary,  so  I  fear  that  I 
may  have  passed  by  many  a  person  to  whom  I  am 
under  obligation. 

The  learned  librarian  of  the  Vatican,  Mon¬ 
signor  Achille  Ratti,  with  whom  I  had  a  long 
conference  about  certain  Nestorian  rubbings  in 
the  Vatican  collections,  and  whom  I  later  visited 
anew,  was  keenly  interested  in  the  Replica. 

I  was  told  that  the  learned  librarian,  who  had 
long  been  the  head  of  the  Ambrosian  Library  of 
Milan,  would  like  to  see  the  Nestorian  Cast, 
which  I  had  presented  the  year  before  to  the 
Pope  and  which  was  then  in  the  Lateran, 
ordered  to  Milan. 

Unfortunately,  the  Pope  decided  that  the 
Cast  should  be  re-erected  in  the  Biblical  Insti¬ 
tute  in  Rome,  while  the  Stone-Replica  was  set 
up  in  the  Lateran — not  where  the  Cast  had 
stood,  but,  as  indicated,  opposite  the  main- 
entrance,  which  caused  considerable  expense,  re¬ 
arrangement,  and  trouble,  as  a  huge  sarcophagus 
had  to  be  moved  upstairs  in  order  to  yield  the 
better  space. 

Now  that  Monsignor  Ratti  has  been  elevated 


FATE  OF  THE  REPLICA 


323 


to  the  Chair  of  St.  Peter,  it  is  only  natural  that 
His  Holiness  has  but  to  command  in  order  to 
have  a  Cast  placed  at  Milan. 

I  witnessed  the  creation  of  a  number  of  cardi¬ 
nals  from  the  diplomatic  loge,  and  I  repeatedly 
visited  various  catacombs  with  Professor  Ma- 
rucchi ;  I  lectured  under  Cardinal  Gasquet’s  roof, 
with  three  cardinals — among  them  Cardinal 
Bourne  from  London — and  three  ministers  pleni¬ 
potentiary  to  the  Vatican  in  the  front  fauteuils , 
and  I  repeated  my  lecture  for  Qurinal  circles,  as 
it  were,  in  the  American  Academy  on  the  Jani- 
culum,  while  I  spoke  in  F rench  at  the  Cancelleria 
before  the  members  of  the  Papal  Society  of 
Christian  Archa?ology  concerning  the  manner  in 
which  accuracy  had  been  attained  in  inscribing 
the  Replica. 

But  time  flew,  and  the  appointed  day  for  my 
farewell  audience  of  His  Holiness  came  only 
too  soon. 

Never  shall  I  forget  the  kindness  of  the  little, 
frail  Father  in  White,  who  again  hindered  me 
from  kneeling,  when  I  entered,  and  who  seemed 
to  know  all  about  my  lectures  and  other  doings 
in  Rome  over  the  past  weeks. 

Pope  Benedict’s  last  words — we  spoke  French 
— as  I  backed  out  of  his  presence  were: 

“And,  when  you  have  once  more  been  on  long 


324  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


journeys,  and  you  come  to  Rome,  you  must  not 
go  by  my  door!” 

The  Pontiff  honoured  me  with  an  autographed 
photograph,  bearing  a  holograph  inscription 
lauding  my  work  in  generous  terms. 

I  returned  to  the  United  States  without  seeing 
the  Replica  actually  re-erected  in  the  Later  an — 
any  more  than  I  ever  saw  the  original  Stela 
finally  set  up  in  the  Peilin  of  Sian-fu.  But  I 
know  from  photographs,  and  from  relatives 
who  have  seen  it,  that  Professor  Marucchi  saw 
to  it  that  everything  was  most  satisfactorily 
finished. 

The  Replica  now  rests  on  a  marble-base,  which 
raises  it  to  a  total  height  of  over  eleven  feet. 

The  pedestal  bears  an  inscription,  composed 
by  the  Latin  secretary  to  the  popes,  Monsignor 
Galli,  and  indicating  to  the  visitor  within  the 
Lateran,  what  the  Chingchiaopei,  the  Monu- 
mentum  Syro-Sinicum,  stands  for,  and  how  it 
was  brought  into  the  Eternal  City  to  remain 
under  pontifical  jurisdiction  and  ownership. 

As  to  my  own  share  in  all  of  this — I  am  termed 
Fridericus  Holm  ex  Dania  in  the  Latin  in¬ 
scription — it  has  magnanimously  been  distin¬ 
guished  as  follows: 

DILIGENTISSIME  NEC  SINE  CAPITIS  PERICULO. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES : 

(Reprinted  with  minor  changes  from  “  Who’s  Who  in 

America/’  1922-23.) 

HOLM,  Frits  (Vilhelm)  ;  explorer,  author,  lecturer;  born 
Charlottenlund,  Copenhagen,  Denmark,  July  23,  1881; 
elder  son  of  Consul-General  Frederik  Holm  and  Emma 
(Bording)  Holm;  educated  in  private  and  government 
Latin  schools  (1887-1895)  and  Danish  Royal  Navy  (1895- 
1900);  D.C.L.  Susquehanna  University,  LL.D.  Lincoln 
Memorial  University,  etc.;  married  at  New  York,  October 
9,  1919,  Marguerite  Macdonough  Green,  Lady  of  Grace  of 
the  Constantinian  Order  of  St.  George,  only  child  of  War¬ 
ren  L.  Green,  President  of  the  American  Bank  Note  Com¬ 
pany,  and  Jeanne  (Thierry)  Green.  In  newspaper  work 
China,  Japan,  U.  S.  A.,  England,  and  Scandinavia  since 
1901 ;  royal  sworn  interpreter-translator,  Danish  govern¬ 
ment  license  (1905-21);  twice  a  circumnavigator;  Associ¬ 
ated  Press  correspondent  at  Interparliamentary  Conference 
in  House  of  Lords,  July,  1906;  commanded  the  Holm- 
Nestorian  Expedition  to  Sian-fu  (1907-8);  government 
guest  in  Mexico,  1911 ;  a  former  editor  of  “  Records  of  the 
Past  ”;  a  literary  critic  on  the  New  York  Times  (1909-12)  ; 
correspondent  to  Danish  newspapers  since  1903,  and  to 
Petermann’s  Mitteilungen ;  Boy  Scout  Commissioner  (1913- 
16);  chief  of  naval  staff  of  volunteer  F.  A.  C.  (1914-17); 
mission  to  the  Vatican  (1916-17)  ;  American  war-correspon¬ 
dent  for  Leslie’s,  etc.,  in  northern  Europe  (1917-18); 
commissioner  abroad  and  delegate-general  of  Cuban  Red 
Cross  (1918-19);  although  of  neutral  nationality  served  25 
months  in  world  war ;  diplomatic  envoy  extraordinary  of  the 
Republic  of  San  Marino  to  President  Harding’s  inaugura¬ 
tion  (1921);  hon.  Professor  in  archaeology  under  Mexican 
Ministry  of  Public  Instruction  (1923). 

Decorations :  Senator-Grand-Cross  with  Collar  of  the 
Constantinian  Order  of  St.  George  (the  most  ancient  Order 

325 


326  MY  NESTORIAN  ADVENTURE  IN  CHINA 


of  Chivalry  extant,  and  of  which  Cardinal  Gibbons  received 
the  only  other  Grand  Cross  ever  conferred  in  the  U.  S.  A.)  ; 
Grand  Cross  (for  services  in  the  world  war)  of  the  Cuban 
Order  of  Honour  and  Merit;  Grand  Cross  with  Swords  of 
St.  Cyril  and  St.  Methodius;  Knight-Commander  of  the 
Orders  of  the  Redeemer  (Greece),  St.  Sylvester  (Holy 
See),  and  the  Liberator  (U.  S.  of  Venezuela)  ;  Coronation 
Medal  and  Royal  Red  Cross  (Spain)  ;  Cambodgian  Medal 
of  Merit  in  gold  (France) ;  additional  decorations  from 
Austria,  Belgium,  Bulgaria,  Cuba,  France,  Holy  See,  Japan, 
Liechtenstein,  Mexico,  Portugal,  Russia,  and  Spain — -deco¬ 
rated  in  all  44  times  (1902-22). 

Gold-medallist,  honorary,  corresponding,  and  life  member 
of  29  scientific  and  humane  societies  and  roval  academies  in 
13  countries.  Author:  The  Nestorian  Monument  (1909), 
etc.,  and  numerous  magazine  articles.  Has  lectured  ex¬ 
tensively  in  Denmark,  U.  S.  A.,  Canada,  Italy,  and  Mexico. 
Clubs :  Royal  Yacht  (Copenhagen),  the  Authors’  (London). 
Office:  14  John  Street,  New  York;  telegraphic  address: 
Fritsholm  Newyork. 


INDEX 


(Certain  entries  like,  for  example,  “Loess,”  “  Sian-fu,”  and  a  few  others,  have  not  been 
mentioned  each  time  they  reappear  due  to  too  frequent  occurrence  in  the  text.  The  subject- 
chapters,  dealing  e.  g.  with  “  Sian-fu,”  are  mentioned  by  page  in  this  Index,  but  otherwise 
the  extensive  existence  df  certain  names  and  appellations  is  indicated  merely  by  an  “  etc.”) 


A 

Abruzzi,  H.  R.  H.  the  Duke  of  the,  23. 
Academies,  royal,  326. 

Adam,  Pope  of  China,  182. 

Adler,  Dr.  Cyrus,  26. 

Aglen,  Comr.  F.  A.,  293,  295,  296,  297. 
Aleni,  Father,  218. 

Alexieff,  Prof.,  239,  251. 

Algiers,  301. 

Alkoran,  66. 

Aloha,  160. 

Alopen  (Olopun),  165,  166,  168. 

Alps,  The,  189. 

Altar  of  Heaven,  42. 

Ambrosian  Library,  Milan,  322. 
America,  114,  226,  240,  249. 

American  Academy,  Rome,  323. 
American  Bank  Note  Co.,  325. 
American  Civil  War,  121. 

American  Tobacco  Co.,  19,  256. 
Amoy,  38. 

Anderson,  Amb.  Larz,  307. 

Anderson,  Pastor,  87,  236,  276. 
Andrews,  Roy  C.,  315. 

Anling-hsien,  45,  46. 

Aristotle,  39. 

Armistead,  Pilot,  300. 

Asia,  18,  26,  158. 

Asia,  a  magazine,  315. 

Associated  Press,  325. 

Assyrian  Church,  313. 

-Astor  House,  Hankow,  206. 

Astor  House,  Shanghai,  300. 

Astor  House,  Tientsin,  28. 

Athens,  312. 

Atlantic  Ocean,  303. 


Austrian  submarines,  320. 

Authors’  Club,  London,  326. 
Ayscough,  Perry,  214,  216,  219,  220, 
222,  228,  229,  277, 

Aztec  Calendar  Stone,  152. 

B 

Ba  River,  109. 

Babylon,  64. 

Bainbridge,  O.,  221. 

Balkh  (Balach),  Afghanistan,  183, 
Ballon  captif,  116. 

Baltic,  115. 

Baptist  mission  at  Sian,  128,  261,  262. 
Baths  of  Lintung,  106,  etc. 

Beggars  at  Sian,  137. 

Beinhoff,  Dr.,  87,  236,  238,  241,  276. 
Benedict  XV,  H.  H.  Pope,  12,  320, 
321,  322,  323. 

Bennett,  James  Gordon,  302. 

Berlin,  312. 

Berner,  Gilbert,  17. 

Berserk,  237. 

Biblical  Institute,  Rome,  312,  322. 
Biography,  325. 

Bland,  J.  O.  P.,  19,  287. 

Bodhisatvas,  239. 

Bonzes,  150,  235. 

Book  Review,  New  York  Times,  15, 
325. 

Borghese,  Don  Livio,  208,  287. 
Bording,  Emma,  325. 

Bornholm,  115. 

Bosch  Reitz,  S.  C.,  318. 

Boston,  301,  303. 

Bourke,  J.  B.,  113. 


327 


328 


INDEX 


Bourne,  Cardinal,  323. 

Boxers,  18,  63,  64,  91,  138,  288. 

Boy  Scouts  of  America,  325. 

Brandt,  Consul  A.,  209. 

Bredon,  Sir  Robert,  271. 

British  Legation,  Peking,  52. 

British  Museum,  23,  24,  252. 

Buddha,  The,  50,  60,  63,  238,  239. 
Buddhistic  (Nestorian)  temple,  149, 
250. 

Bund,  The,  17,  18,  67. 

Butler,  Prof.  Nich.  M.,  316. 

C 

Cairo,  278. 

Calcutta,  312. 

“  Camel-men,”  40,  60,  76,  202. 
Canada,  326. 

Cancelleria,  Rome,  323. 

Canton,  227. 

Caracas,  312. 

“  Carmen,”  117. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  306. 

Carus,  Dr.  Paul,  159. 

Casts  of  Replica,  311,  312. 
Catacombs,  Rome,  323. 

Catharina,  Empress,  133. 

Cathay,  146,  185. 

Catholic  mission  at  Sian,  125,  261, 
262,  267. 

Caves  in  the  cliff,  238. 

Caves  in  the  Loess,  109,  118,  119. 
Cebu,  301. 

Cerberus,  318. 

Chaldaean  Christians,  11. 

Changan,  129,  165. 

Chang  Chih  Tung,  207,  208,  209,  286. 
Changsha-hsien,  37. 

Chang  Shu  Shen,  215,  223,  229. 

Chao,  H.  E.  Governor,  102,  134,  268, 
284,  291. 

Charlottenlund,  325. 

Chataukow,  71. 

Chavannes,  Prof.  Ed.,  148,  239,  251. 
Chekiang,  115,  216. 

Chengchow,  185,  211,  213,  229,  231, 
232,  247,  259,  262,  277,  287,  290. 
Chengkiakow,  54. 

Chi  Hwang  Ti,  Emperor,  106. 
Chiatso,  80,  81. 


Chicago,  303. 

Chili,  23,  45,  46,  58,  59,  71,  288. 
Chilipu,  109,  121, 

China’s  Foremost  Monument,  23,  145, 
149,  157. 

China  Inland  Mission,  77,  128. 
Chinese  Jews,  216. 

Chingchiaopei,  The,  146,  etc. 
Chingkiang,  67,  104. 

Chingling  Range,  185,  etc. 

Ching  Tsing,  150. 

Chinkwan,  70. 

Chokiachwang,  287. 

Chou  (Chau)  Dynasty,  166,  167. 
Christianity  introduced  into  China, 
20,  158,  311. 

Christian  Museum  of  the  Lateran, 
Rome,  312,  319,  320. 

Chu,  Magistrate,  255,  260. 

Chii,  Telgr.  Mgr.,  270. 

Church,  Nestorian,  11,  167. 

Chusan,  30. 

Clark,  Robert  Sterling,  314. 

Clarke,  Sir  Caspar  Purdon,  26,  240, 
304,  306,  310,  318. 

Classics,  Thirteen,  136. 

Columbia  University,  11,  316. 
Confucian  temples,  64,  135,  136,  234. 
Confucius,  60,  102,  136. 

Constantinian  Order  of  St.  George, 

325. 

Constantinople,  65,  130,  312. 

Conway,  Sir  Martin,  25. 

Copenhagen,  19,  25,  303,  305,  312,  325, 

326. 

Cordier,  Henri,  148. 

Cormorants,  78. 

Cost  of  expedition,  321. 

Criminals,  luncheon  with,  103. 

Cross  on  Monument,  150,  151,  246. 
Cumdan,  183. 

D 

Daibutsu,  239. 

Daily  Chronicle,  London,  113. 

Dai  Nippon,  128. 

Daniel,  Father.  126. 

Danish  anthem,  210. 

Danish  flag,  196,  197,  267. 


INDEX 


329 


Danish  interests  in  Peking,  17,  283, 
284,  285,  291. 

Danish  Royal  Navy,  325. 

“  Dannebrog,”  196. 

Dano-Prussian  War,  121. 

Dante,  84. 

Decalque,  250. 

Decorations  conferred,  12,  309,  325, 
326. 

de  Forest,  R.  W.r  311. 

Deluge  of  Yii,  111. 

Denmark,  18,  226,  320,  325,  326. 
Denominations  in  China,  20,  155. 
de  Savinsky,  N.,  287. 

Diana,  49. 

Doctorates  conferred,  325. 

Dragon  Gate,  236,  237. 

Drayton,  J.  Coleman,  316. 
“Dreadnought,”  H.  M.  S.,  48. 

“  Duca  d’Aosta,”  319. 

Dust  storm,  115,  119,  120. 

E 

East  Assyrian  Church,  313. 

Edward  VII,  H.  M.  King,  23. 

Egg  Diet,  97,  122,  245,  277. 

Egypt,  36. 

Elisabeth.  Queen,  133. 

Ellis,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  62,  66,  67. 

“  Empress  of  India,”  27. 

England,  325. 

English  maps,  76. 

Esau,  218. 

Estrangelo,  Syriac,  182. 

Eternal  City,  320,  324. 

Europe,  18,  114,  226,  240,  249. 
Expedition,  cost  of,  321. 

Expedition,  results  of,  311,  312,  313. 

F 

Falconio,  Cardinal,  321. 

Fancheng,  204,  238. 

Fang,  Duke,  165. 

Feng,  General,  316. 

Ffrench,  Lord,  287. 

Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  132. 
Fletcher,  Amb.  Henry  P.,  287. 

Fong,  Interpreter,  28,  etc. 

“Foreign  Devil,”  34,  105. 


“  Forest  of  Tablets,”  135,  265. 

Forest,  R.  W.  de,  311. 

France,  239. 

Franciscans,  126,  268. 

Frederik  VIII,  H.  M.  King,  Dedica¬ 
tion. 

Freer,  Charles,  306. 

Friedenthal,  Prof.,  127. 

Fukien,  38. 

Fungkiakow,  39. 

Fuping,  212,  213,  246,  260. 

G 

Gabriel,  Father,  125,  261,  268. 

Galli,  Commendatore,  321. 

Galli,  Monsignor,  324. 

Gasparri,  Cardinal,  321. 

Gasquet,  Cardinal,  321,  323. 

Gauge  of  railways,  288. 

Geil,  Wm.  Edgar,  314,  315. 

Genoa,  319. 

German  maps,  61,  62,  72,  76. 
Gibbons,  Cardinal,  325. 

“  Ginger  Stone,”  119. 

Gobi  Desert,  112,  115. 

Goette,  Bishop,  125,  155,  268. 

Goitre,  195. 

Gold  Medallist.  326. 

Gordon,  General,  49. 

Grand  Canal,  23,  51,  52,  53,  202. 
Great  Northern  Telegraphs,  17. 
Great  Royal  Library,  Copenhagen, 
312. 

Great  Wall,  53,  106,  288,  314. 

Great  War,  325. 

Greece,  39. 

Green,  Marguerite  Macdonough,  325. 
Green,  Warren  L.,  325. 

H 

Habana,  228. 

Hagquist,  Pastor  W.,  128,  252,  253, 
315,  317. 

Halicarnassus,  228. 

Halifax,  278. 

Han  Dynasty,  106,  136,  167,  216. 

Han  River,  145,  185,  196,  202,  203,  238. 
Hanan-isho,  Patriarch,  182. 

Hangchow,  52,  67,  216. 


330 


INDEX 


Han  Hwai  Tah,  184. 

Hankow,  38,  202,  205,  206,  207,  227, 
228,  292. 

Hankow  Daily  News ,  249. 

Hanyang,  205,  207. 

Harding,  President  W.  G.,  325. 
Harlem,  228. 

Hart,  Sir  Robert,  123,  271,  286,  295. 
Harvard  University,  302. 

Havre t,  Father  Henri,  148. 

Hebrews,  Chinese,  216. 

Hedin,  Sven  af,  89. 

Heller,  Father,  148. 

“  Hellig  Olav,”  26. 

Himalaya,  119. 

Hirth,  Prof.  Friedrich,  12,  316,  317. 
Hiuentsung  (Hsiian  Tsung),  Emperor, 
169  179. 

Holm,  Frederik,  325. 

Holm,  Frits,  13,  159,  223,  284,  285,  324, 
325,  326. 

Holy  Spirit,  162. 

Honan,  30,  46,  71,  99,  100,  116,  191, 

202. 

Honan-fu,  87,  94,  114,  139,  204,  235. 
Hongkew  and  Shanghai  Wharf,  68. 
Hongkong,  301. 

Honours,  12,  309,  325,  326. 

Hough,  Dr.  Walter,  319. 

House  of  Lords,  325. 

Hsian-fu,  129,  240. 

Hsiaotsichwang.  50. 

Hsiautan-hsien,  71. 

Hsienning,  129. 

Hsun-hsien,  77. 

Hugh,  Father,  125,  261,  268. 
Huguenots,  131. 

Hupeh,  145,  202. 

Hwa  Shan,  101,  269,  272. 

Hwa-chow,  27r. 

Hwaiking-fu,  82,  84,  278. 

Hwang-ho,  85,  92,  100,  112,  118,  214, 
234,  242,  272,  291,  (see  also  Yellow 
River) . 

Hwang-tu,  111. 

Hwayin-hsien,  244,  271,  283. 
Hwayinmiao,  101,  244. 

I 

Hi,  99. 

Imperial  Court,  18,  138,  139. 


Imperial  Refuge  at  Sian,  138,  139,  262. 
Imperial  University,  Kioto,  312. 
India,  76,  102,  216,  238. 

Indian  Museum,  Calcutta,  312. 
Infanticide,  38. 

“  Inferno,5 ”  84. 

Inns,  Chinese,  95,  96. 

Inquisition,  Holy,  84. 

Inscription,  Nestorian,  158,  etc. 
Interparliamentary  Conference,  325. 
Ireland,  Archbishop,  12. 

Irrigation,  36. 

Islam,  131. 

Israelites,  Chinese,  216,  218. 

Italy,  326. 

J 

Jacob,  218. 

Jacquet,  M.,  234. 

Janiculum,  Rome,  323. 

Japan,  27,  239,  325. 

Jardine,  Matheson  &  Co.,  293,  297. 
Jesuit  Fathers,  216. 

Jews,  Chinese,  216. 

John  the  Baptist,  218. 

Jordan,  Sir  John,  287. 

Joshua,  Patriarch,  182. 

Judea,  102. 

K 

Kaifeng-fu,  139,  211,  etc.,  252. 
Kaifeng-fu,  Jews  at,  216,  etc. 
Kamakura,  239. 

Kang  bedstead,  96,  186. 

Kansu,  15,  66,  112,  116,  121,  134,  314. 
Kapilavastu,  King  of,  50. 

Kashgar,  108. 

Kashgaria,  103. 

Kautsung,  Emperor,  168,  178. 

Kelly  &  Walsh,  18. 

Kelfie,  Dr.  Scott,  25. 

“  Kennebec,”  298,  300. 

Khaki,  121,  201. 

Kiangsu,  115. 

Kienchung  (Chien-chung),  Emperor, 
173,  181,  182. 

Kih-ho  (Chi-ho),  Priest,  171. 
Kingsmiil,  111. 

King-Tsing,  Priest,  159. 

Kingtzekuan,  191,  192,  194,  196,  202, 
213,  246. 


INDEX 


331 


Kin  Han  railway,  78,  81,  185,  206,  279, 
280. 

Kioto,  312. 

Kircher,  Father  A.,  148,  182. 

Kirin  beer,  254. 

Kobe,  27. 

Koh,  Duke,  175. 

Kong-fu-tsz,  60,  65,  136. 

Koko  Nor,  119. 

Koran,  26. 

Kowtow,  93. 

Kreitner,  Ltn.,  148. 

Kulan,  89,  90. 

“  Kulanebra,”  90,  92. 

Kumdan,  183. 

Kung-hsien,  234,  291. 

“  Kung-pao,”  286. 

Kuwabara,  Prof.,  317. 

Kwan-ti,  236,  237. 

Kwan-yin,  47. 

Kwang  Hsu,  Emperor,  141,  207. 
Kwantung,  227. 

L 

Lama  temple,  251. 

Lanchiao,  187. 

Lanchow,  114,  134,  139. 

Land  of  Sinim,  153. 

Lankester,  Sir  Ray,  90. 

Lantien,  187. 

Laohokow,  196,  202. 

Lao-tse,  101,  102,  243. 

Lateran  Palace,  312,  319,  321,  322,  324. 
Learned  societies,  12,  309,  326. 

Leca,  M.,  211,  277. 

Lectures  on  Monument,  303,  309,  311, 
313,  326. 

Legation,  Danish,  at  Peking,  27,  283, 
284,  285,  291. 

Legation,  Russian,  at  Peking,  27,  283, 
284,  285,  291. 

Legge,  Dr.,  148. 

Leslie’s  Weekly,  325. 

Li,  (one-third  mile),  51. 

Li  Shan,  106,  108. 

Likin,  71,  196,  262. 

Likwanchiao,  200. 

Lincoln  Memorial  University,  325. 
Lintung-hsien,  19,  106,  108,  142,  245, 
269. 


Lintsing-chow,  61,  62,  63,  67,  69,  101. 
Liuliho,  35. 

Liutze,  270. 

Liverpool,  278. 

Loess,  110,  etc. 

Loho  River,  234,  236,  238. 

London,  19,  25,  26,  113,  152,  256,  278, 

323,  326. 

Longfellow,  210. 

“  Loong  Wo,”  296,  297. 

Lowe  Chuan  Hwa,  20. 

Loyang,  232,  238. 

Lil  Siu-yen,  150,  182. 

Luciani,  M.,  211,  277. 

Ludgate  Hill,  London,  132. 

Luminous  Lord,  161. 

Lungchiichai,  189,  191,  192. 

Lungmen,  236,  238,  239,  240. 

Lyman,  H.  D.,  26,  306. 

“  Lysistrata,”  302. 

M 

Mackay  treaty,  196. 

Madrid,  312. 

Manchu  city,  131,  132,  222. 

Manchu  soldiers,  121. 

Manila,  301. 

Manji,  146,  185. 

Mar  Shimun,  H.  B.  Patriarch,  12. 
Marco  Polo,  51,  146,  218. 

Markham,  Sir  Clements,  25. 
Marucchi,  Commendatore  O.,  321,  322, 

324. 

Mary,  the  Virgin,  218. 

Masi,  28,  etc. 

Medallist,  Gold,  309,  326. 

Memorial  slabs  at  Sian,  136. 

Mencius,  60. 

Meng-hsien,  84,  85. 

Menzies,  Dr.  and  Mrs.,  83. 

Messiah,  161,  162. 

Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New 
York,  26,  240,  252,  304,  306,  308,  309, 
318 

Mexico  City,  152,  303,  312,  325,  326. 
Middle  Flowery  Kingdom,  20,  217. 
Middle  Kingdom,  114,  175,  197,  214, 
229,  238. 

Mienchi,  276. 

Milan,  322,  323. 


332 


INDEX 


Ming  Dynasty,  45,  222. 

Mitchell,  Dr.  S.  Weir,  307. 

Moabite  Stone,  152. 

Mohammed,  131. 

Mohammedans,  63,  66,  104,  130,  131, 
134,  219. 

Mongolia,  27,  103. 

Mongolian  deserts,  114. 

Mongolian  ponies,  121. 

Montecorvino,  Bishop  John  of,  158, 
311. 

Montreal,  27,  312. 

Monument,  Nestorian,  145,  etc. 
Monumentum  Syro-Sinicum,  152,  324. 
Moore,  Prof.  G.  F.,  302. 

Morgan,  J.  Pierpont,  36. 

Morrison,  Dr.,  287. 

Moses,  217,  219. 

Moslems,  65,  130,  219. 

Moule,  Rev.,  148. 

Mullahs,  131,  220. 

Muller,  Prof.,  148. 

Munich,  317. 

Musee  Guimet,  Paris,  312. 

Museum,  Lateran,  312,  319,  320. 
Mussulmen,  220. 

Me 

McCormick,  Frederick,  240,  241. 
McGill  University,  Montreal,  312. 

N 

Nagasaki,  27. 

Nan-Chili,  71. 

Nanking,  138. 

Nansen,  Dr.  Frithjof,  25. 

Nation,  The,  20. 

National  Archaeologic  Museum,  Ath¬ 
ens,  312. 

National  Archaeologic  Museum,  Mad¬ 
rid,  312. 

National  Guimet  Museum,  Paris,  312. 
National  Museum,  Caracas,  312. 
National  Museum,  Mexico  City,  312. 
National  Museum,  Washington,  D. 

C.,  307,  310,  319. 

Nestorian  Church,  11,  146. 

Nestorian  inscription,  158,  etc. 
Nestorian  missionaries,  11,  212. 
Nestorian  Monument,  The,  145,  etc. 


Nestorian  Monument,  Removal  of, 
264,  265. 

Nestorian  Patriarch,  12. 

Nestorius,  312. 

New  Haven,  312. 

New  Year,  Chinese,  40. 

New  York,  19,  25,  152,  278,  302,  307, 
310,  315. 

New  York  Times,  15,  305,  325. 

Nile  River,  23,  36. 

Ning,  Prince  of,  169. 

Ning-Kuo,  King  of,  170. 

Ningpo,  30,  194  216. 

Ning-shu,  Bishop,  182. 

Noah,  111. 

Norway,  115. 

O 

Occident,  21. 

Okakura,  Prof.  Y.,  317,  318. 
Oldenburg,  A.  de,  321. 

Olopun,  146,  165,  168. 

“  Open  Court,”  159. 

Opium,  102,  134,  152. 

Orientalists,  Intern,  Congress  of,  305. 

P 

Pacific  Ocean,  27. 

Page,  Amb.  T.  N.,  322. 

Panama,  278. 

Panpitien,  61. 

Pantau,  274. 

Pauthier,  M.,  148. 

Papal  Society  of  Christian  Archae¬ 
ology,  323. 

Paper  rubbings,  250. 

Paris,  152,  312. 

Peary,  R.  E.,  Civil  Engineer,  197. 
Pechili,  Gulf  of,  276. 

Peilin,  135,  136,  241,  265,  315,  324. 
Peking,  42,  etc. 

Peking-Hankow  railway,  153. 

Peking  Syndicate,  78,  82. 

Pelliot,  Prof.  Paul,  148. 

Persia,  102,  216. 

Persians,  161,  162. 

Petermann’s  Mitteilungen,  325. 
Pe-Yuan,  139. 

Philadelphia,  307. 

Pienfang,  232. 


INDEX 


333 


Pienlo  railway,  214,  232,  234,  276. 
Pin-Head  cigarette,  256. 

Pius  XI,  H.  H.  Pope,  322,  323. 

Plato,  39,  60. 

Pokotilow,  Minister,  284. 

Pontiff,  320,  324. 

Pontifical  Biblical  Institute,  Rome, 
312. 

Pontifical  Lateran  Museum,  Rome, 
312  319. 

Pope  Benedict  XV,  H.  H.,  12,  320, 
321,  322,  323. 

Pope  of  Zhinastan,  158. 

Pope  Pius  XI,  H.  H.,  322,  323. 

Port  Said,  65. 

Potentia,  113. 

Postal  Union,  123. 

Prejevalsky,  Col.,  89. 

Prosefytism,  20. 

Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  11. 
Pumpelly,  Prof.  Raphael,  111. 

Q 

Quebec,  303. 

Queen’s  Hall,  London,  23. 

Quincey,  J.  W.,  48. 

Quirinal,  circles,  323. 

R 

Railway  gauges,  288. 

Raj  agriha,  175. 

Ramsay,  Sir  William,  113. 

Rathbun,  Dr.  Richard,  307. 

Ratti,  Monsignor  A.,  322. 

Rebecca,  218. 

“  Records  of  the  Past  325. 

Red  Cross,  Cuban,  325. 

Red  Sea,  301. 

Reid,  Alex.,  81. 

Reitz,  S.  C.  Bosch,  318. 

Replica,  casts  of,  312. 

Replica,  Nestorian,  153,  157,  212,  250, 
266,  290,  299,  303,  etc. 

Results  of  expedition,  311,  312,  313. 
Ricci,  Father  M.,  218. 

Robbers,  88,  117,  168,  200,  274. 
Robert  College,  Constantinople,  312. 
Robinson,  Ed.,  310. 

Rockhill,  Amb.  W.  W.,  27,  147. 

Rocky  Mountains,  189. 


Rome,  113,  303,  311,  312,  320,  321,  324. 
Roman  Catholic  missions,  125,  158, 
261,  262,  267. 

Roman  Empire,  39. 

Roosevelt,  President  Theodore,  12. 
Rosetta  Stone,  24,  152. 
Roshdestvensky,  M.,  287. 

“  Rosinante,”  90. 

Royal  academies,  326. 

Royal  Asiatic  Society,  China  Branch, 
240,  298. 

Royal  Geographical  Society,  23. 

Royal  Library,  Copenhagen,  312. 
Royal  Yacht  Club,  Copenhagen,  326. 

S 

Saeki,  Prof.  P.  Y.,  12,  148,  159,  184, 
317. 

Sahara,  113. 

St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  267. 

St.  George,  Constantinian  Order  of, 

325. 

St.  Patrick’s,  New  York,  132. 

St.  Paul’s,  London,  132. 

St.  Peter,  Chair  of,  323. 

St.  Peter’s,  Rome,  112,  119. 

St.  Sylvester,  Order  of,  12. 

Salzmann,  Ltn.  E.  von,  108. 

San  Marino,  325. 

Sand  storm,  56,  112. 

Sage,  Mrs.  Russell,  307. 

Sangkiayuen,  46. 

Sankuinmiao,  75. 

Sankwanmiao,  185. 

Sanyuan,  127. 

Sanz  de  Samper,  Monsignor  R.,  321. 
Saracens,  218. 

Saragh,  183. 

Satan,  160. 

Savinsky,  N.  de,  287. 

Scandinavia,  325. 

Scandinavian  Alliance  Mission,  128, 
261. 

Schaumloeffel,  E.,  122,  etc. 

Scientific  societies,  Fellow  of,  12,  309, 

326. 

Scott,  Dr.,  83. 

Scott  Keltie,  Dr.,  25. 

Semedo,  Father,  147,  148. 

Serpentine,  London,  223. 

Shamo  Desert,  112. 


334- 


INDEX 


Shangchow,  189. 

Shanghai,  17,  19,  49,  67,  139,  297,  300, 
302. 

Shanghai  Times,  249. 

Shanghai  Volunteers,  34. 

Shangnan,  193,  194. 

Shansi,  67,  72,  78,  100,  115,  271,  287, 
288 

Shantung,  46,  58,  59,  60,  71,  101,  116. 
Shenchou,  275. 

Shen-Kan  provinces,  134,  314. 

Shensi,  15,  18,  66,  89,  92,  100,  112,  116, 
121  131 

Sian-fu,  129,  etc.,  231,  etc.,  248,  etc. 
Sian-fu,  imperial  refuge  at,  138,  139, 
262. 

Sian-fu,  Jews  at,  216. 

Siangyang,  204. 

Sienyang,  100. 

Sigan-fu,  129. 

Sinan-hsien,  98. 

Singan-fu,  129. 

Sinho-hsien,  36. 

Sinim,  Land  of,  153. 

Siroco,  113. 

Smithsonian  Institution,  213,  307. 
Society  for  Promoting  Christian 
Knowledge,  London,  159. 

Solon,  39. 

Sons  of  Han,  30,  158. 

Soochow  Creek,  17. 

“  Squeeze,”  55,  56,  107,  139,  196,  205, 
259. 

Squilbin,  M.  and  Mme.,  235,  276. 

St.  (Saint),  see  above. 

Stanley,  Sir  Henry  M.,  315. 

State  Museum  of  Anthropology,  Ber¬ 
lin,  312. 

Steele,  Asa,  305. 

Stone  Coppice,  135,  137. 

Straits  Settlements,  301. 

Submarines,  320. 

Suchow,  104. 

Suez  Canal,  298,  301. 

Suhtsung  (Su-Tsung),  Emperor,  172, 
175,  179. 

Sumatra,  301. 

Sung  Dynasty,  220. 

Sung  Shan,  238. 

Susquehanna  University,  325. 


Sutras,  163,  165,  166. 

Swift  Horse  Mts.,  106. 

Swiss  Guard,  Popes’,  130. 

Sycee  money,  54,  55,  73,  227,  264. 
Syria,  20,  146,  161,  165,  166. 
Syriac-Estrangelo,  148,  151,  246,  316. 
Syrian  Church,  159,  166. 

Syro-Chinese  inscription,  150. 
Szechuan,  130. 

Szeshuiho,  233,  276. 

T 

Ta  Tsin,  20,  146. 

Ta  Wan  Pagoda,  61. 

Ta’ch’in,  159,  162,  165,  166,  167,  171. 
Tai  Shan,  101. 

Taichau,  182. 

Taipings,  63,  64,  92. 

Taitsung,  Emperor,  165,  172,  180. 
Taiyuan-fu,  114,  287,  288. 

Taku  27 

Tan  River,  45,  185,  196,  199,  202. 
Tang  Dynasty,  127,  132,  142,  146,  158, 
165,  167,  178,  182,  238,  247,  268,  294, 
311. 

Tao  Teh  King,  102. 

Taoism,  101,  242. 

Taokow,  30,  34,  72,  76,  82. 

Tatar  city,  131. 

Ta-tze,  235. 

Teh-chow,  48,  49. 

Tehuristan,  183. 

Teichman,  Eric,  315. 

Thibet,  27. 

Thierry,  J.  M.,  325. 

Thirty  Year  War,  210. 

Thompson,  Yates,  25. 

Thomsen,  H.  E.  Prof.  Vilhelm,  12, 305. 
Tientsin,  27,  28,  etc. 

Times,  London,  19. 

Times,  New  York,  15,  305,  325. 
Transbaikalia,  114. 

Trigault,  Father,  148. 

TNT  (Trinitrotoluene),  254. 

Trinity,  161. 

Troglodytes,  119. 

Troika,  244,  245. 

Tsin  Dynasty,  106. 

Tsinan-fu,  49. 

Tsing  Dynasty,  142. 


INDEX 


335 


Tsining,  67. 

Tsinghai-hsien,  33. 

Tsinghwa  (Ching  Hua),  82,  90. 
Tsz-Hsi,  Empress-Dowager,  133. 
Tsungli  Yamen,  147. 

Tuan  Fang,  H.  E.  Viceroy,  138. 

Tung  Shan,  74. 

Tung  Yuan  Fang,  125,  126,  143. 
Tungchang,  67. 

Tungchowchi,  52. 

Tungkiutien,  33. 

Tungkwan,  91,  100,  101,  204,  242,  243, 
244,  270,  291. 

Tungkwan-hsien,  34. 
Tungpaotu-hsien,  40,  42. 

Turkestan,  103,  108,  244,  270. 
Tutankhamen,  King,  36. 

U 

United  States,  19,  310,  324,  325,  326. 
U.  S.  National  Museum,  307,  310,  319. 
Uno,  Prof.  T.,  318. 

Urga,  114. 

V 

Vancouver,  27. 

Vatican  Library,  322. 

Vermin,  96. 

Versailles,  Pact  of,  317. 

Veterinary  surgery,  94,  95. 

Voltaire,  148. 

von  Salzmann,  Ltn.  E.,  108. 

von  Waldersee,  F.  M.  Count,  18,  138. 

W 

Wai-Wu-Pu,  21. 

Walcott,  Dr.  C.  D.,  307. 

Waldersee,  F.  M.  Count  von,  18,  138. 
Wales,  H.  R.  H.  the  Prince  of,  23. 
Wang  Kuang  Ky,  Minister,  317,  321. 
Warings,  130. 

Waseda  University,  Tokio,  159. 
Washington,  D.  C.,  26,  307. 

Wei  Dynasty,  167,  238. 

Weihui,  80. 

Wei  River,  67,  72. 

Wei  River,  western,  67,  100,  118,  126, 
127,  143,  272. 

Weinan-hsien,  104,  245. 

Wells  Williams,  Rev.  Dr.  S.,  148. 


Wen-hsien,  242,  274. 

West  Asia,  11,  20,  130,  167. 
Whampoa  River,  17,  68,  298. 
Whelpley,  J.  D.,  26,  306. 

Whiteley,  Wm.,  70,  188. 

“  Who’s  Who  in  America,”  325. 
Williams,  Rev.  Dr.  S.  Wells,  148. 
Williamson,  Dr.,  148. 

Wong,  Prof.,  252,  253,  260. 

World  War,  325. 

Wu,  Empress,  132,  133,  294. 

Wu,  Director,  224. 

Wuchang,  207,  208,  252,  286. 
Wucheng,  58. 

Wukwang,  192. 

Wulung,  73. 

Wylie,  Rev.  Dr.  Alexander,  148,  159, 
184. 

Y 

Yale  University,  312. 

Yangkadoo  Wharf,  68. 

Yang-tse,  17,  19,  38,  67,  78,  185,  204, 
296,  314. 

Yang  Wu  Chii,  215,  224,  251,  253,  259, 
262,  285. 

Yellow  Earth,  111. 

Yellow  River,  85,  100,  234,  271,  279, 
(see  also  Hwang-ho). 

Yenshih,  235,  276. 

Yih,  Magistrate,  229,  230,  232,  290. 
Ying,  Mr.,  252. 

Yohannan,  Prof.  Abraham,  13,  148. 
Yokohama,  27,  239. 

Yuan  Shi  Kai,  28,  39,  45,  48,  79,  85, 
91,  286. 

Yuan  Ta  Hua,  H.  E.  Governor,  225, 
226. 

Yii,  Deluge  of,  111. 

Yuen  Dynasty,  51. 

Yufangcheng,  60. 

Yungyang,  233. 

Yii  River,  100,  126. 

Yii  Show,  Priest,  150,  153,  213,  249, 
257,  263. 

Yiiwongmiao,  272. 

Z 

Zend-Avesta,  102. 

Zhinastan,  Pope  of,  159. 


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